Get to know me
Biography
My ancestors were forcibly deported from our motherland, Crimea, in 1944. I was born in Tashkent, USSR, in 1988.
In 2003, when I was 15, my parents and I moved to Moscow. That same year, as soon as the internet start being more available, I got involved in actionism, organizing the first flashmob actions in Moscow. In 2004 I’ve remotely organized a community in Tashkent and started a flash mob movement in Uzbekistan.
Since childhood, I dreamed of working in television – recording interviews on audiotapes, drawing comic strips. In 2005, still without citizenship, I enrolled at the Institute of Journalism and Creative Writing. During my first year I wrote a series of 10 stories about death, sex, drugs and overconsumption, under the guidance of professors Evgeny Zharinov and Vitaly Babenko.
At the same time, I tried every way I could to get on the set to see the film and TV kitchen with my own eyes. I went to the Mosfilm entrance hall just to be near this great place and found the phone number of the lead actor of the crowd scenes there. So my brother and I starred as hippies in Garik Sukachev’s legendary film “House of the Sun”.
A while later, I found myself on the set of the TV talk show “Scandalous Life with Olga B” on the TVC channel. Watching the crew at work as a member of the audience, I realized that I wanted to work with these people. It was the end of 2007.
Some time later I found myself on the set of the TVC talk show “Scandalous Life with Olga B.” Watching the work of the team as an ordinary viewer, I realized that I wanted to work with these people. It was the end of 2007.
Right after the shoot, I went to the hostess and told her I wanted to work with them. She introduced me to the producer, who offered me a job right after the New Year holidays. I worked for the first two months for free and then my colleagues in the newsroom (who had taken Teffi on at the time) talked to the producer and I was put on a contract basis. Because I didn’t have any citizenship, I had to find a front man for my papers.
Working as a talk show editor, I learned how to easily talk to stars, politicians, and other story characters.
A few years later, I decided to start working with musicians I was interested in (it was in my goals in my diary) and wrote on Facebook to Dmitry Spirin (lead singer of the band Tarakany!). I offered to shoot a promo video for the band for the upcoming concert. He didn’t answer right away, so I had to meet him in person at one of his rock parties at the Ikra club and explain how I could be of help.
At that time I had an understanding of how TV works, but I had studied camera (composition, lighting, etc.), editing (adobe premiere) myself. I did not have a portfolio, but I had a great desire to make music videos.
In the end, after working together, I was offered to make a music video for their new song. Subsequently, my next music video for T! would become the most popular in the band’s biography.
Fun Facts
Journalist
Graduated as a TV journalist
Flashmob
On a right time in a right place
25+
Music videos produced
Artist
Digital and real
Rock
That’s how I got into the rock scene — Dima recommended me to other musicians and event organizers. I worked on the Kubana Festival and Chartova Dozen shows with bands and artists such as Korol i Shut, Gleb Samoylov, Bi-2, Slot, Louna, 5nizza, and many others. I worked on music videos, promo content, and also developed visual video sequences for live concerts.
Around that time, I met the team from Gala Records (now Warner Music Russia). They commissioned me to shoot documentary segments about the singer MakSim. Later, she invited me to become the director of her music video project for the song she calls her favorite — “I Will Live.” It was a documentary-style video about four wheelchair users who, despite their limitations, pursue their goals and live life to the fullest. The video received a huge amount of feedback and appreciation for its message of inspiration and hope.
A few months later, Alexander Krasovitsky, the lead singer of Animal Jazz, called me, invited me to a sound check, showed me a new song, and asked if I wanted to direct a music video for it. I knew he had recently broken up with Marina (MakSim), and the song was dedicated to her. According to Sasha, the video fully captured his emotional state during one of the most difficult periods of his life and later became one of the band’s standout works.
The budget was small — we could only afford one shooting shift at the location, camera and lens rentals, and actor fees. I built the props myself, and my girlfriend cooked food for the crew — the classic indie production setup. Shots from that video featuring one of the most recognizable Russian models, Kira Dice — who later became a close friend — are still part of my calling card.
At that time, I shared an apartment in central Moscow with Nikolai Stravinsky (Selfieman vocalist and guitarist of Tarakany!) and Max Gnu (manager for Noize MC and Monetochka). I was right in the middle of the rock scene, while also working alongside the cast and production teams of major TV shows like Dom-2 and Dancing on TNT. Together with Sasha Rock-n-Roll (leader of the punk band Kerosin), we organized and filmed interviews — and often just hung out — with rock legends such as Johnny Rotten (Sex Pistols), members of the Ramones, Misfits, NOFX, and even Chuck Berry.
In 2015, together with the legendary Natasha Klimchuk and Olga Morozova, we launched Bang Bang Education — at the time the largest online school for artists — before online creative education became mainstream.
Warner music
For three years, I collaborated with the Russian division of the Warner Music label. Together with Natalia Martus and Vladimir Yurchenko, we built the WOW TV YouTube channel from the ground up. This gave me the opportunity to work with major Russian artists such as Bianca and Asti, and — most importantly — with world-class stars including Linkin Park, Scooter, Woodkid, James Blunt, Bob Sinclar, Gerard Way, Clean Bandit, Alex Hepburn, and others. I worked behind the scenes with them — in dressing rooms, on stage, at hotels, and of course from the best positions during their concerts.
One of the most important periods in my professional development was completing screenwriting and directing courses organized by the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts and Amedia, studying with Professor David F. Howard and writer Harold Apter.
United States
In January 2016, I traveled to New York to study camera crane operation. While there, I unexpectedly entered the ballroom dance industry and began filming a documentary project together with Yakiv Myronyuk. I wanted to create an “American” project while I was in the country, and this subject felt promising. At that time, I didn’t yet have a feature-length film in my portfolio, so I saw it as a great opportunity for my debut.
I believed in the power and uniqueness of my film idea and started contacting the most important people in the ballroom dancing industry to arrange interviews. I realized that my money wasn’t enough to make a full movie, so I started a crowdfunding campaign where I sold a minute of time in the film for $10k. All in all $50,000 was raised through negotiations and sales. All of this was in English, of course.
During the production of the film, I interviewed some of the world’s top and legendary ballroom dancers, millionaires, and stars of the American TV show Dancing with the Stars. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger became one of the featured characters in one of the stories. I visited 15 cities across the United States on both coasts during filming.
Mary Murphy — a judge on Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance — offered us the opportunity to hold the film’s premiere during the Christmas season at one of the largest ballroom dance competitions in America, which she organizes. As a result, the premiere took place in the legendary pyramid of the Luxor Casino in Las Vegas. Instead of attending in person, my cardboard cutout represented me there, because I chose not to violate U.S. immigration regulations and returned to Russia.
After returning from the United States at the end of 2017, I began working as a director in my own production company and collaborated as a documentary filmmaker with Sasha Gudkov’s production studio Chicken Curry. I have been developing scripts for two feature films and completed a screenwriting course at the Arka Higher School of Cinema, curated by Timur Bekmambetov.
In recent years, I have focused heavily on immersing myself in the contemporary art scene through the Sense Gallery and have been building a career as an NFT artist with the Disartive Family.
This biography covers the period up to the start of the war on February 24, 2022. It is now approaching February 2026, and the story needs to be continued.
War
After the war began in 2022, I was detained in Moscow for participating in protests. Without waiting for trial, I emigrated to the United States, where I spent two months in immigration detention. I later married a woman with three children and helped raise them for four years before the marriage ended in divorce. And it's changed me again.
Now I live in downtown Los Angeles and work as a fashion photographer. I also collaborated with Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Noize MC, on protest actions and projects opposing Putin and the war in Ukraine.
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