Hiro Murai (born 1983) is a Japanese American filmmaker based in Los Angeles. He is best-known for music videos for Childish Gambino, Earl Sweatshirt, Chet Faker and others. His music video and television work has received widespread acclaim, and garnered him three Primetime Emmy Awards (for his work as an executive producer on the Hulu series The Bear and for executive producing and directing the Apple TV series Widow's Bay) and a Grammy Award (for his work on "This Is America").
He rose to prominence with his work on the FX series Atlanta (2016–2022), created by and starring frequent collaborator Donald Glover, on which he served as a director and producer. For his work on the series, he received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations. He would also serve as a director on four episodes on the HBO comedy-drama series Barry (2018–2023), and as a director and executive producer on the HBO limited series Station Eleven (2021–2022), the latter of which also garnered him a further Primetime Emmy Award nomination. He directed five episodes of the 2026 horror comedy drama series Widow's Bay, starring Matthew Rhys.
After graduation, Murai turned to freelance work as the director of photography for numerous music videos, as well as VFX and storyboarding, most notably for Ace Norton.[citation needed] He has directed music videos for Childish Gambino, Earl Sweatshirt, Chet Faker, and others.
He directed the music video for Childish Gambino's "This Is America", released on May 5, 2018, which was described as "the most talked-about music video of recent memory", and which Billboard critics ranked 10th among the "greatest music videos of the 21st century." In 2019, Murai won the Grammy Award for Best Music Video for directing the video.
In November 2018, the trailer for his debut feature film Guava Island, starring Donald Glover and Rihanna, premiered at the Pharos Festival in New Zealand. Guava Island was released on April 13, 2019, by Amazon Studios through Amazon Prime Video. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 74% based on reviews from 43 critics, with an average rating of 6.60/10. On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 64 out of 100, based on 8 reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
In 2021, Murai directed the first and third episodes of the science fiction miniseriesStation Eleven for HBO Max, which garnered him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.
(2009) MVPA Award for Best Video under $25K. The Fray "Heartless"
(2012) Best Music Video Lists: Pitchfork / BuzzFeed / Consequence of Sound / Video Static / Co.Create / NPR Music - for St. Vincent "Cheerleader" and Earl Sweatshirt "Chum"
