Son of Melanya Karapetyan and Rashid Karapetyan of Yerevan, Armenia. Son-in-law of Patricia J. Zahorian of New Cumberland, Pennsylvania, and Dr. George Thomas Zahorian of Hershey, Pennsylvania.
He studied dance at the Armenian School of Ballet and was a dancer at the Zurich Ballet in Zurich Switzerland. He has been with the San Francisco Ballet since 2005 in San Francisco, California.