Munavvara Abdullayeva

Munavvara Abdullayeva was born on 5 April 1950 in Margilan into a working family. She finished secondary school in 1966 and the Margilan planning and economics technical school in 1971. She then studied theatre and film acting at the Ostrovsky Tashkent Theatre and Art Institute and graduated in 1975.

After the institute she spent a year as an actress at the Syrdarya Regional Musical Drama Theatre. In 1976–1978 she took a postgraduate course in pedagogy at the Lunacharsky State Institute of Theatre Arts in Moscow (now GITIS), and in those years trained with the courses of Oleg Tabakov and Vladimir Andreyev and at Andrey Goncharov's theatre.

Since 1978 she has taught at the Tashkent State Institute of Arts, first as a lecturer, then as an associate professor and later as a professor. Her students include the actors Mirzabek Xolmedov and Madina Muxtorova.

Alongside teaching she works as a director and has staged about thirty plays in various theatres. From 1989 she directed «Chimildiq», «Andishali kelinchak», «Bevalar» and «Dadajon demayman» at the Uzbek National Academic Drama Theatre. In 1995 she staged Sławomir Mrożek's play «The House on the Border» at the Fergana Russian Theatre. Several of her productions — Uyghun's «Alisher Navoi», Abdulla Qodiriy's «Scorpion from the Altar», and Xushvaqtov's «Chimildiq» and «Mashrab» — are counted in the gold fund of the country's theatre art.

As an actress she has played mothers and other women's parts in films such as «Domla», «Kichkina tabib», «Oppoq qushlar», «Ayol» and «Osmondagi bolalar».

In 2000 she received the title of Honoured Youth Mentor of Uzbekistan. By presidential decree of 26 August 2023 she was awarded the Order of Labour Glory as a professor of the institute's department of musical and dramatic theatre and cinema.