Hojiboy Tojiboyev

Hojiboy Tojiboyev (born Hojimurod) was born on 25 August 1955 in the Leninabad region of the Tajik SSR and spent his childhood in the Jabbor Rasulov district. He later came to Tashkent and in 1978 graduated from the Tashkent Theatre and Art Institute.

After graduating he returned to Tajikistan and worked in Leninabad, first at the Shukur Burkhanov Uzbek drama theatre and then at the Kamol Khujandi musical comedy theatre. After the collapse of the USSR he moved to Tashkent to continue his career.

On stage he was a humorist and master of the spoken word, performing monologues that retold everyday events with humour; some of his phrases became popular sayings. From the late 1990s his solo programmes at the Peoples' Friendship Palace of Arts (now Istiqlol) in Tashkent drew full houses, and he was equally popular in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

In film he appeared in Tangalik bolalar, Perestroyka and Sharif va Marif.

He held the titles of Honoured Artist of Uzbekistan and Honoured Artist of Tajikistan and received the Shuhrat Medal. He died in Tashkent on 24 July 2008 and was buried in Khujand.

A monument to him was unveiled in the Tashkent City complex in December 2019; in August 2021, on the 30th anniversary of independence, he was posthumously awarded the Order of Labour Glory (Mehnat shuhrati).