Biographical Summary

An Iranian immigrant who arrived in the U.S. at age 17, Larian worked his way through college and earned a civil engineering degree at California State University in Los Angeles. He planned to return to Iran but after the 1979 Iranian revolution, decided to stay in the U.S. He entered the toy business in 1987 and after a series of hit-or-miss ventures. formed MGA Entertainment in 1997 and released the first Bratz Doll in 2001. Bratz quickly eclipsed Barbie as the top-selling doll line in the world but MGA was forced to stop manufacturing and selling them in December 2008 after losing a copyright infringement lawsuit to Mattel. But Larian didn't give up. Following a long, drawn out legal battle between Mattel and MGA over the rights to Bratz dolls, MGA won in court in April 2011 and MGA is has relaunched the popular doll line. "It's not going to be easy and it's not going to happen overnight," said Larian in 2011, who added that the new Bratz will continue to represent "multi-ethnic fashion dolls that take their cues from pop culture trends," only this time they'll be "even more edgy."