Daniel Malikyar is an Afghan-American artist creating visual stories about the world’s most interesting communities.
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Daniel works as a photographer, filmmaker, and creative director. He has created campaigns for industry leading brands across music, fashion, sports, automotive and tech featuring celebrities like Drake, Marshmello, Will Ferrell, Migos and Snoop Dogg.
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Daniel’s work has been featured internationally in magazines, television, and billboards including exhibitions at the House of Lucie Gallery, American Natural History Museum, and the Petersen Automotive Museum. His projects have also received International Photography Awards, Gold American Advertising awards, an MTV VMA nomination and a Tribeca Film Festival selection.
BIOGRAPHY
Daniel Malikyar (b. 1995) is an Afghan-American multi-disciplinary artist working as a photographer, filmmaker, and creative director. His works focus on celebrating underrepresented communities around the world.
In 2015, he was selected as the youngest official FUJIFILM X-Photographer in the world. Shortly after, Malikyar became the Creative Director for multi-platinum artist, Marshmello. He directed the creative strategy and production of the artists visual content for 4 years. During that time, Marshmello’s YouTube subscribers grew from 25k to 45 million, making him one of the top 3 most followed artists on the platform.
In 2017, he co-founded production company and creative agency, MGX CREATIVE, where his branded projects have received over 5 billion online views. MGX has also produced feature documentaries for Amazon Prime Video and YouTube Originals.
In 2020, Malikyar co-founded fine art gallery, Santo, where he has released original fine art print collaborations with Mercedes-Benz and prolific Porsche collector, Magnus Walker. Santo represents a select roster of photographers and has collectors in over 25 countries.
In 2022, he was commissioned by Taschen for their book, Ice Cold: A Hip Hop Jewelry History, and his images were exhibited at the Armory Show in New York. He also produced the feature documentary, Untrapped: The Story of Lil Baby which premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival and was acquired by Amazon Prime Video.
Daniel is currently in production his next fine art project in Afghanistan which will premiere in 2025 with a coffee table book, photography exhibitions in the US, EU and Asia, and a premium docu-series.