Oleg Menshikov

Oleg Yevgenyevich Menshikov (born November 8, 1960, Serpukhov, Moscow Region, RSFSR, USSR) - Soviet and Russian actor, film and theater director and teacher, People's Artist of the Russian Federation (2003). Winner of three Russian State Prizes (1995, 1997, 1999).

Artistic director of the Moscow Drama Theatre named after M. N. Ermolova since 2012, director of the Moscow Drama Theatre named after M. N. Ermolova (2012-2021).

Oleg Menshikov was born on November 8, 1960 in Serpukhov, Moscow region in the family of military engineer Yevgeny Yakovlevich Menshikov (8.1.1934-9.7.2020) and neurologist Elena Innokentievna Menshikova (25 May 1933-28 May 2019).

After graduating from general and musical schools (1977), he enrolled in the M.S. Schepkin Higher Theatrical School, on the course of Vladimir Monakhov.

Made his film debut in 1980 in the film "Waiting and Hoping" by Suren Shakhbazyan. This was followed by the films "Kinfolk" by Nikita Mikhalkov and "Dream and Vivid Flights" by Roman Balayan, where Oleg Menshikov drew attention even in episodic roles.

During his last year at the Theater School he was invited by Mikhail Kozakov to play Kostya in the film "The Pokrovskie Gate". This TV movie was released in 1982, and it was this role that brought the actor popularity and love of the audience.

The role of Kostya was followed by a number of diverse roles, including Captain Fracassus (1984), Volodya the Big, Volodya the Little (1985), My Favorite Clown (1986) and Moonsund (1987). The role in the latter film brought the actor a silver medal named after AP Dovzhenko.

After graduating from drama school in 1981, joined the Maly Theater. A year later he was drafted into the Soviet Army and served in the Central Academic Theater of the Soviet Army. One of the most striking roles he played in this theater is the role of Ganechka in the play based on Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky's novel The Idiot.

In 1985 Menshikov joined the company of the Ermolova Theater, where he worked until 1989. The most notable roles here were those in The Sporting Scenes of 1981 and The Second Year of Freedom (directed by Valery Fokin).

For his role as the Roman Emperor Caligula in Pyotr Fomenko's play of the same name staged in 1990, he received an award and a diploma from the Moscow Seasons Festival.

After becoming a free actor, in 1991 he played the role of Sergei Yesenin in "When She Danced" by the Globe Theatre in London with Vanessa Redgrave as Isadora Duncan. In 1992, he was awarded for this role Laurence Olivier Award of the British Academy of Arts. Then, the same actor participated in the play based on Nikolai Gogol "The Players" as Ikharev.

The next theatrical role, which was also a great success, was the role of the great Russian dancer Vaclav Nijinsky in the play "N" ("Nijinsky") (1993, entreprise "Bogis"), where he also acted as a director. A year later, he again played Yesenin in "When She Danced," but now at the Paris Comédie Française Theatre on the Champs-Élysées.

Continuing to act in films and starring in Alexander Hwang's "Duba Duba" (1992), Oleg Menshikov starred in Nikita Mikhalkov's "Burnt by the Sun" in 1994. The role in the American Oscar-winning film (1994) was one of the brightest in the creative biography of the actor and brought him several awards.

The next role - in the film directed by Sergei Bodrov Senior "Caucasian Captive" (1996) - has also been awarded awards.

In 1998, he again starred with Nikita Mikhalkov in the film "The Barber of Siberia," for which he received the State Prize of Russia.

In 1995 he organized Theatrical Association 814, a cooperative, where he staged and performed Woe from Wit (1995), The Kitchen (2000, the play was written by Maxim Kurochkin for the Association), The Players (2001) and took the leading part in Kirill Serebrennikov's The Demon (2003).

In 2001 he established the A. Kugel Award for Russian Theater Critics, the jury of which includes actors and directors from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Voronezh.

He was a member of the permanent independent jury of the Triumph Prize for literature and art.

In 2005 he was married to actress Anastasia Chernova. At the beginning of the same year he hosted the New Year's Eve show - "First Night with Oleg Menshikov.

In the beginning of 2008 he staged his first mono-performance "1900" on the stage of Mossovet Theater within the framework of "Chereshnevy Les" festival. The presentation of Oleg Menshikov's brass band (principal conductor - Denis Vinogradov) took place at the same festival in 2011.

On April 4, 2012 he was appointed artistic director of the Ermolova Drama Theatre[10][11]. The same year he appeared as hockey coach Anatoly Tarasov in the film Legend No. 17.

Performed the role of Colonel (in the second film - General) Valentin Lebedev, the father of the main character, in the fantastic films of Fyodor Bondarchuk "Attraction" and "Invasion".

He also starred in the films "Gogol. The Beginning," "Gogol. Terrible Revenge" and in the television series "Gogol" in the image of investigator Yakov Petrovich Guro.

On April 18, 2018, he opened his own channel on YouTube, where he began to produce the show "OM" in the format of one-on-one interviews. However, during the year there were only a few issues, the heroes of which were Danila Kozlovsky, Mikhail Efremov, Alla Pugacheva, Slava Polunin, Fyodor Konyukhov and Viktor Sukhorukov. On April 15, 2019, on Alla Pugacheva's 70th birthday, Channel One broadcast her interview with Oleg Menshikov after the Vremya program. It was the first time in the channel's practice that a full version of a project created for the Internet was aired.

In 2018, he was a proxy for Sergei Sobyanin, candidate for mayor of Moscow.

Since 2018, he has been a professor in the Department of Acting and the artistic director of the workshop at the GITIS Acting Department.

In August 2021 he left his position as director of the M. N. Ermolova Theater.

Plays the piano, violin, and guitar.