Darius Arya

Darius Andre Arya (born February 24, 1971) is an American classical archaeologist (Ph.D.) of Iranian decent and has appeared in several History, National Geographic, and Discovery Channel programs.
Personal life
Darius Andre Arya was born in Buffalo, New York on February 24, 1971, the son of Iranian parents, Sirous Arya and Martha M. Arya.
Darius was raised in Huntington, West Virginia. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy and graduated with a classics diploma in 1989. He went to the University of Pennsylvania where he majored in classics and graduated in 1993. His junior year, he studied in Rome, Italy at the I.C.C.S. program. He received his MA and PhD from the University of Texas at Austin. During those studies, he conducted his dissertation research in Italy through a Fulbright grant (1999) and fellowship/ Rome Prize recipient at the American Academy in Rome (2000). He received his PhD in 2002.
His ancestry is Persian and German-American. He currently resides in Rome, Italy with his family.
Professional life
Darius taught at UT Austin as a TA and AI and then as an instructor for the University of California program (Roman topography, Roman archaeology, religious studies, Ancient Art, Engineering and Architecture, Roman Civilization). From 2002 to the present he has been the CEO of the American Institute for Roman Culture, which he co-founded. He initiated and co-directed all of the AIRC's summer field school excavations: Roman Forum (2003-2005) with Stanford and Oxford University partners, Villa delle Vignacce (2006-2009) with Comune di Roma, Ostia Antica Porta Marina (2010) with U. of Bologna, and oversaw the field school with AIRC's Alberto Prieto (2011) and various university partners. From 2012 and onward, he will co-direct the Ostia Antica excavation with Alberto Prieto.

Since 2005 Rome: Engineering an Empire (History, winner of 2 Emmys), Darius has appeared in over 25 documentaries, including the series Ancients Behaving Badly (History) and When Rome Ruled (National Geographic). Although an expert on the Roman world, he has also been consulted for topics beyond the scope of Rome, both chronologically and geographically.

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