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Alec Utgoff is a British actor best known for playing 'Dr. Alexei' in the Netflix hit show, Stranger Things (2016). He was born in Kiev, Soviet Union. After moving to UK at a young age, Alec pursued acting and attended the prestigious Drama Centre London where he graduated in 2010 after completing his BA and MA degrees. He appeared in numerous films and TV series including Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014), Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015), San Andreas (2015) and others.

Natalie Burn is an accomplished actress of Ukrainian heritage, now holding American citizenship. She boasts a distinguished career, marked by her commitment to excellence in the performing arts. Natalie is proud to be a lifetime member of The Actors Studio and an active member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

In her latest project, "Til Death Do Us Part," which was released in AMC theaters nationwide, Natalie received critical acclaim for her portrayal as a runaway bride in danger. Several reviewers and articles like Hollywood Reporter, CBS News and LA Times praised Burn's ability to do her own stunts as well as her dramatic performance alongside esteemed actors Cam Gigandet and Jason Patric. Her recent credits encompass a range of notable productions, including Warner Brothers' DC Comic film "Black Adam," starring Dwayne Johnson, and "The Enforcer," opposite Antonio Banderas and Kate Bosworth. She shone in "The Expendables 3" alongside Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Mel Gibson. Her upcoming film, "The Movers," features Academy Nominee Terence Howard and Jena Malone.

Natalie's television work includes co-starring roles in the Amazon Prime Emmy Award-winning Limited Drama Series "Studio City," which earned her an Indie Series Award Nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and the Lifetime Original movie "Vanished: Search for My Sister.

Also recognized for her exceptional skills in martial arts, Natalie has starred in several action movies across industry legends like Bruce Willis and Jason Statham. Recently, she commanded the screen as the lead in the action-packed thriller "Acceleration," alongside Dolph Lundgren and Sean Patrick Flanery. Later this year she can be seen starring in the upcoming medieval epic "The Last Redemption."

In addition to her acting prowess, Natalie is a classically trained ballet dancer, having graduated from The Royal Ballet School in London and Bolshoi Ballet Academy. Fluent in four languages, she brings a global perspective to her artistic endeavors.

As a producer, Natalie owns two production companies, 7Heaven Productions and Born To Burn Films, with a track record of producing a dozen successful films to date and several more in pre-production.

Driven by a desire to inspire and empower women in the entertainment industry worldwide, Natalie Burn sets a high standard as a role model for artistic excellence and professionalism.

Larisa Polonsky was born on 30 March 1982 in Kiev, USSR [now Ukraine]. She is an actress, known for Person of Interest (2011), Leaving Circadia (2014) and Trust, Greed, Bullets & Bourbon (2013).

Gene Stupnitsky was born on 26 August 1977 in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, USSR. He is a producer and writer, known for The Office (2005), Good Boys (2019) and Jury Duty (2023).

Ilia Volok trained at the Moscow Art Theatre School under Russian actor Aleksandr Kalyagin and is a lifetime member of The Actors Studio. He has appeared in over 150 films, television shows, and video games. He is known for his work on Gemini Man opposite Will Smith for director Ang Lee, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull directed by Steven Spielberg; Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol with Tom Cruise; Air Force One opposite Harrison Ford directed by Wolfgang Peterson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button opposite Brad Pitt, directed by David Fincher, Water For Elephants opposite Reese Witherspoon, Swordfish opposite John Travolta and Hugh Jackman and The Immigrant opposite Marion Cotillard, Joaquin Phoenix and Jermey Renner directed by James Grey, .

Additionally, he has guest starred in major television including "The Punisher", "Magnum PI", "McGuyver", "Counterpart", "Shameless", "NCIS" and "NCIS: New Orleans", "Criminal Minds", "The Americans", "Baskets", recurring roles on Michael Bay's series "The Last Ship" and "Scandal" and an episode at the height of 'Friends" in which reference was made to the Air Force One without mentioning him as one of its actors.

The character Vladimir Kamarivsky in the Electronic Arts video game Battlefield 3 is modeled after and voiced by Volok.

His life took an unexpected turn when after being a professional athlete, 3rd place at the world championship in rowing, he left to pursue acting at one of the most prestigious acting colleges, the Moscow Art Theatre School. To the complete surprise of his friends and relatives, he passed a rigorous competition (200 hundred contestants per one spot) and was accepted to study under the direction of one of the top stars of Russian theatre and cinema - Alexandr Kalyagin. Upon graduation he was invited to work in several top theatre companies the Moscow Art Theatre being one of them. But once again he changed the direction of his life, and with $300.00 in his pocket, without any knowledge of English, he came to America to pursue his dream of being a working as Hollywood actor.

He was working at a cemetery as a funeral service attendant where he enjoyed quiet surroundings and fresh air, later he was promoted to selling cemetery plots. Volok got his acting break in the movie Hail Ceaser, opposite Samuel Jackson, Robert Downey Jr. and Michael Anthony Hall. Volok also appeared in Oliver Stone's U-Turn, The Soloist, Abduction, GI Joe 2 and Pawn Sacrifice.

Ilia often performs on stage. His Theater credits include: "The Awful Grace of God" at The Actors Company, "The Revisionist" at The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing arts, co-starred opposite Tony award winner Deanna Dunagan, "Who Killed Comrade Rabbit" at the Blank Theater), co writer and producer, "Vivien" at the Actor's Circle, co-produced, the one man show "Diary of a Madman", Just a Song at Twilight at Write Act Repertory, Cat's Paw at the Actor's Studio, "Ferdinand" at Promanade Playhouse, "Cassat & Degas" at The Hudson Theater, "Destiny's Calling" at the Stella Adler Theater, "Chekhov in Yalta" at Theater 40) and "Fakov in America" at the American Renegade Theater. His one-man show Diary of A Madman won the LA Weekly Theater Award for Best Solo Performance. Ilia is a Faculty of the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in Los Angeles. Volok is represented at Endorse Management Group.

Ana Layevska was born on 10 January 1982 in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Ukraine]. She is an actress, known for The War Next-door (2021), La Muchacha Que Limpia (2021) and Yankee (2019). She has been married to Rodrigo Moreira since 13 April 2014.

Oleg Zagorodnii is an Ukrainian film, theater and TV actor. Zagorodnii was born on October 27, 1987 in Kyiv. He studied Kyiv National I. K. Karpenko-Kary Theatre, Cinema and Television University, graduating in 2010. Since 2010, the actor of the Lesya Ukrainka National Academic Theater. In 2015 he was invited to the troupe of the Moscow Theater Gogol Center. Since 2010, he has been acting in films, making his debut in the films "Demons" and "1942". In 2021, Zagorodnii starred in Firebird as Roman. The film is set in the 1970s at the height of the Cold War and tells about the love relationship that broke out between Soviet Air Force Lieutenant Roman Matveev (Oleg Zagorodnii) and Private Sergey Serebrennikov.

The distinguished film director Anatole Litvak was born in the Ukrainian city of Kiev, the son of Jewish parents. His very first job was as a stage hand. In 1915, he became an actor, performing at a little-known experimental theater in St. Petersburg, Russia. As a teenager, he witnessed the 1917 Russian Revolution and the consequent nationalization of all theaters and drama schools. It was at this time Litvak decided to quit the stage and join the burgeoning Soviet film industry. He was given a job at the Leningrad Nordkino studio as a set designer, but, before long, he worked his way up to directing short features, notably Tatiana (1925), a film about children.

In 1925, he left the Soviet Union for Berlin and was hired by the renowned director Georg Wilhelm Pabst to edit The Joyless Street (1925) starring Greta Garbo. He then began directing numerous short films for Ufa, and, eventually, moved on to full-length features. The most important of these was the romantic comedy Dolly macht Karriere (1930). Litvak's stay in Germany was cut short by the rise to power of Adolf Hitler. Litvak moved to France, and directed Mayerling (1936), starring Charles Boyer and Danielle Darrieux. This production was the turning point in Litvak's career, being a major hit on both sides of the Atlantic. He received effusive praise from critic Frank S. Nugent of the New York Times, who commented on the director's "superb assembling of scenes" and the "matchless performances" of the stars (September 14,1937). Hollywood soon beckoned, and, from 1937 to 1941, Litvak became a contract director for Warner Brothers. His first film was The Woman I Love (1937), which starred his future wife Miriam Hopkins. His experience with diverse aspects of stagecraft, as well as his fluency in four languages (Russian, German, French and English), enabled him to competently tackle a wide variety of subjects: from sophisticated continental comedy (Tovarich (1937)) to historical drama (Anastasia (1956)) and romance (All This, and Heaven Too (1940)).

Litvak was at his best directing taut, suspenseful crime dramas, such as The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938) with Edward G. Robinson and Humphrey Bogart, hailed by Variety as "an unquestionable winner"; and two tough action films starring John Garfield: Castle on the Hudson (1940) and Out of the Fog (1941). Having become an American citizen in 1940, Litvak enlisted in the US army and collaborated with Frank Capra on the wartime "Why we Fight" series of documentaries. At war's end he left the army with the rank of colonel and returned to Hollywood to direct the classic thriller Sorry, Wrong Number (1948) with Barbara Stanwyck. Arguably his best film was the superb psychological drama The Snake Pit (1948), Hollywood's first attempt to seriously examine the treatment of mental illness. Indeed, the film was so influential that it precipitated changes in the American mental health system. Litvak was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Director, but lost out to John Huston for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948).

In 1949, the director -- who had once described Hollywood as a "Mecca" -- returned to Europe and settled in Paris, working only infrequently. He undertook several projects under contract to 20th Century Fox (in 1951, and from 1955 to 1956). Notable among his later efforts are two contrasting films with Ingrid Bergman: the lavishly produced Anastasia (1956), about a woman claiming to be the Romanoff dynasty's last living direct descendant; and the moody, introspective romantic drama Goodbye Again (1961), shot on location in Paris. In stark thematic contrast to these, he also directed the suspenseful wartime thriller The Night of the Generals (1967), starring Peter O'Toole.

Anatole Litvak died in a hospital in Neuilly, Paris, in December 1974 at the age of 72.

Eugene Hutz was born on 6 September 1972 in Boyarka, Kiev Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Ukraine]. He is an actor, known for Everything Is Illuminated (2005), Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006) and Filth and Wisdom (2008).

Mayer was born Lazar Meir in the Ukraine and grew up in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada after his parents fled Russian oppression in 1886. He had a brutal childhood, raised in poverty and suffering physical and emotional abuse from his nearly-illiterate peddler father. In the early 1890s, he changed his name to Louis and fudged his birth date to reflect the more "patriotic" date of July 4, 1885. He moved to Boston in 1904 and struggled as a scrap-metal dealer until he was able to purchase a burlesque house. Although he made large sums by showing films (he made a sizable fortune off The Birth of a Nation (1915)), his early business ventures favored legitimate theater in New England. As his theater empire expanded, he had acquired and refurbished enough small movie theaters that he was able to move his business to Los Angeles and venture into movie production in 1918. Along with Samuel Goldwyn and Marcus Loew of Metro Pictures, he formed a new company called Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).

Over the next 25 years, MGM was "the Tiffany of the studios," producing more films and movie stars than any other studio in the world. Mayer became the prime creator of the enduring Hollywood of myth, home to stars like Clark Gable, Judy Garland, Joan Crawford, and Jean Harlow. Mayer became the highest-paid man in America, one of the country's most successful horse breeders, a political force and Hollywood's leading spokesman. Both he and MGM reached their peaks at the end of World War II, and Mayer was forced out in 1951. He died of leukemia in 1957.

Vadim Perelman was born in 1963 in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Ukraine]. He is a director and producer, known for House of Sand and Fog (2003), Persian Lessons (2020) and The Life Before Her Eyes (2007).

Alex Feldman was born in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Ukraine]. He is an actor and director, known for The Americans (2013), Eternity Hill (2016) and Law & Order (1990).

Andy Scott Harris began performing in commercials and industrial films at age four, after being spotted by an agent in a talent show. By age seven, he had decided that acting was his true calling. He moved with his family from Minneapolis to Los Angeles in 2008 and immediately booked the lead in the award-winning short film, "The Closet". He broke into Prime Time television later that year when he co-starred on House "Big Baby", earning him his SAG membership. Andy was a stand-up comedian with the comedy troupe "Standing Tall Comedy Kids & Teens", and regularly performed at the Improv Comedy Club.

Born in Russian Empire to a Ukrainian father and a Swedish mother, Anna Sten studied at the Russian Film Academy and joined the Moscow Art Theater. Strikingly beautiful, she went on to appear in a number of Russian silent films, but it was in the German film Der Mörder Dimitri Karamasoff (1931) that Anna gained notice. Samuel Goldwyn saw a picture of Anna in the paper and rushed to view the film. After the first reel he sent word to sign her, hoping to develop her into a star of the magnitude of Greta Garbo or Marlene Dietrich. His agent signed Anna to a contract but forgot to mention the fact that she didn't speak a word of English, which made her appearance in sound pictures questionable. She spent a year studying English every day and working out makeup and acting. Goldwyn publicity called her "The Passionate Peasant" and sold her image to papers all over America. However, her first American picture, Nana (1934), even though almost completely rewritten and re-shot from the original, didn't bring audiences into the theaters. While Anna was looked great, the script and picture were average. Her second film, We Live Again (1934), marginally better suited to her style, also died within weeks at the box office. After her third film for Goldwyn, The Wedding Night (1935), also flopped, she and Goldwyn parted company after it became known around Hollywood as "Goldwyn's Last Sten." Anna made a few more movies, but by the end of the decade she was forgotten.

Anna Sedokova was born on 16 December 1982 in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Ukraine]. She is an actress and composer, known for Anna Sedokova: Santa Barbara (2019), Anna Sedokova: Ne tvoja vina (2017) and Anna Sedokova: Graal (2020). She has been married to Jannis Timma since 6 September 2020. She was previously married to Maksim Shevchenko and Valentin Belkevich.

Alexander Rodnyansky was born on July 2nd of 1961 in Kiev. He graduated from Kiev's National University of Film, Theatre and Television as a documentary director. In 1983 he started his career at "KievNauchFilm" studio.

As a director Mr. Rodnyansky won numerous awards for his documentaries. From 1990 till 1993 he worked as a producer and film director at the German television channel ZDF.

In 1994 he returns to Ukraine to create the first independent television channel in the country 1+1. In a matter of months 1+1 became the leader of the television market in Ukraine. Mr. Rodnyansky served as CEO of 1+1 and was a co-owner of the company together with Central European Media Enterprises (CME). Later he sold his interest in 1+1 to CME.

In 2002 Mr. Rodnaynsky was asked to head the American company Story First Communication (later renamed CTC Media) which operated one TV-channel - CTC. Under his leadership the company transformed into an international television powerhouse with five channels in three countries.

Mr. Rodnyansky was responsible for making CTC Media the first ever Russian media company to have an IPO on NASDAQ. In 2002 the CTC channel had a market value of approximately $40 million, when Mr. Rodnyansky left CTC Media in 2008 the company's market capitalization was over $4 billion; CTC doubled its audience share and became the fourth most popular channel in Russia.

During his career Mr. Rodnyansky produced over 30 films and more than 20 television series. As producer Mr. Rodnyansky had made box-office hits such as The 9th Company, The Heat, Piter FM, Inhabited Island and critically acclaimed films - The Sun by Alexander Sokurov, Les Mille et une Regettes du Cuisinier Amoreux, Driver for Vera by Pavel Chuhray and East-West by Régis Wargnier.

In 2009 Rodnyansky has founded AR Films through which he now controls a movie production company Non-Stop Production, the leader of the distribution of independent films Cinema without frontiers (Kino Bez Granits) and the most important film festival in Russia - Kinotavr.

Maya Deren came to the USA in 1922 as Eleanora Derenkowsky. Together with her father Solomon Derenkowsky, a psychiatrist, and her mother Maria Fidler, an artist, she fled the Soviet Union. She studied journalism and political science at the Syracuse University in New York, finishing her BA at the New York University (NYU) in June 1936, and then received her MA in English literature from the Smith College in 1939.

In 1943, she made her first film Meshes of the Afternoon (1943), co-starring with Alexander Hammid. Through this association, at Hammid's suggestion, she changed her name to Maya, meaning "illusion." Overall, she made six short films and several incomplete films, including Witch's Cradle (1944) starring Marcel Duchamp.

Deren is the author of two books, "An Anagram of Ideas on Art, Form, and Film" 1946 (reprinted in "The Legend of Maya Deren," vol 1, part 2) and "Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti" (1953)--a book that was made after her first trip to Haiti in 1947 and which is still considered one of the most useful on Haitian Voudoun. Deren wrote numerous articles on film and on Haiti. Maya Deren shot over 18,000 feet of film in Haiti from 1947 to 1954 on Haitian Voudoun, parts of which can be viewed in Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti (1993) made after her death by her then-husband Teiji Ito and his new wife Cherel Ito.

In 1947, Maya Deren became the first filmmaker to receive a Guggenheim grant for creative work in motion pictures. She wrote film theory, distributed her own films, traveled across the USA, and went to Cuba and Canada to promote her films using the lecture-demonstration format to teach film theory, and Voudoun and the interrelationship of magic, science, and religion. Deren established the Creative Film Foundation in the late 1950s to reward the achievements of independent filmmakers.

Joseph Conrad was born in Berdichev, Kiev Province, now the Ukraine, to Polish parents Apollo Korzeniowski and Ewa Bobrowska. His father was a political activist and he and his family were exiled after he was suspected of involvement with revolutionary activities. Conrad had no friends as a child and rarely associated with boys or girls. His mother had always been a sickly person and died of tuberculosis in 1865. Conrad's father sent him to live with his uncle and pursue his education in France. Conrad's father died in 1869, also of tuberculosis. Conrad became an officer on British ships and spent two decades on various ships. Conrad was inspired to write "Heart of Darkness" after voyaging to Congo in 1890. In 1894, Conrad published his first novel and in 1896 he married Jessie George, an on-again off-again girlfriend. Conrad had few friends in adulthood, mainly fellow authors such as Stephen Crane and Henry James. Conrad died of a heart attack in 1924.

Aleksey Gorbunov was born on 29 October 1961 in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Ukraine]. He is an actor and writer, known for 12 (2007), Sherlock Holmes (2013) and Mechenosets (2006).

Polina Vasylyna was born on 15 May 1998 in Kiev, Ukraine. She is an actress, known for Skazheni susidy. Novi istoriyi (2022), Kruty 1918 (2019) and Crazy Wedding (2018).

Juliette Marquis was born on 16 April 1980 in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Ukraine]. She is an actress and producer, known for This Girl's Life (2003), Horn Maker and Into the Sun (2005).

Mila Sivatskaya was born on 3 December 1998 in Kiev, Ukraine. She is an actress, known for The Last Warrior (2017), Grand (2018) and Cossacks (2020).

Ireesha was born in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Ukraine]. She is known for Click (2006), Q: Secret Agent (2008) and Two and a Half Men (2003).

Ekaterina Kuznetsova was born on 12 July 1987 in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Ukraine]. She is an actress, known for Bystree, chem kroliki (2014), Chastnoe pionerskoe 2 (2015) and Samka bogomola (2021).

Sergei Makovetsky is a popular Russian actor best known for his leading roles in Duska (2007) by director Jos Stelling and in 12 (2007) by director Nikita Mikhalkov.

He was born Sergei Vasilevich Makovetsky on June 13, 1958, in Darnitsa, a suburb of Kiev, Soviet Union (now Kyiv, Ukraine). He was raised by a single mother, was a good swimmer and water polo player and candidate to Soviet National Team, but his mother strongly objected his sports career. After failing to enter the Kiev Theatrical College, he worked as a stage decorator for one year, then moved to Moscow in his pursuit of an acting career. In Moscow Makovetsky was rejected by several acting schools, then he was drafted in the Soviet Army, but he managed to fool the Army doctors by using his acting skills to show symptoms of serious illnesses. Eventually his persistence and determination paid off, and his natural talent was recognized. From 1977 - 1980 he studied acting at the Shchukin Theatrical School of Vakhtangov Theatre in Moscow, graduating as an actor in 1980 from the class of Alla Kazanskaya.

Since 1980 Makovetsky has been member of the troupe at Vakhtangov Theatre in Moscow. There his stage partners were such actors as Mikhail Ulyanov, Vasiliy Lanovoy, Yuliya Borisova, Lyudmila Maksakova, Alla Kazanskaya, Irina Kupchenko, Lyudmila Tselikovskaya, Mariya Aronova, Marianna Vertinskaya, Elena Dobronravova, Yuriy Yakovlev, Vladimir Etush, Vyacheslav Shalevich, Nikolai Timofeyev, Aleksandr Grave, Vladimir Simonov, Vladimir Koval, Viktor Zozulin, Evgeniy Karelskikh, Aleksandr Koznov, Vladimir Vdovichenkov, Mikhail Vaskov, Andrei Zaretsky, Nonna Grishaeva, Mariya Aronova, Elena Sotnikova, Anna Dubrovskaya, Olga Tumaykina, Maksim Sukhanov, and Viktor Dobronravov, among others.

His most memorable stage performances included such roles as Iago in the Shakespeare's 'Othello' (1980s), as Gorodnichy in 'Revizor' (1990s) (aka.. Ispector general) based on the classic play by Nikolay Gogol, and as Gan-za-Lin in 'Zoikina kvartira' based on the eponymous play by Mikhail A. Bulgakov, among other plays. In 1998 Makovetsky created the title character in Molière's 'Amfitrion' and the play has been a continuous success for 9 seasons in a row. Since the 2003 premiere of 'Chaika', Makovetsky has been delivering critically acclaimed performances as Trigorin opposite Lyudmila Maksakova and Yuriy Yakovlev. He also appeared in several stage productions by director Roman Viktyuk.

Sergei Makovetsky was designated People's Actor of Russia, and received numerous awards for his works on stage and in films. He is one of the highest paid actors in today's Russia. Sergei Makovetsky is living and working in Moscow, Russia.