Born in 1969 in Cologne, Germany Currently lives in San Francisco, California; and Berlin, Germany As a high school student Ezawa was the singer of a punk band named "The Plot." In those years he also began making large-scale action paintings inspired by Jackson Pollock. Ezawa went on to study art in Düsseldorf, Germany, and at the San Francisco Art Institute and Stanford University. He is now a film professor at the California College of the Arts and his work has been exhibited in many parts of the world.