Olga Volodina

Olga Viktorovna Volodina was born in 1963 in Yangiyul, Tashkent Region; her family later lived in Syrdarya, and she attended school in Tashkent. In 1984 she graduated from the Ostrovsky Tashkent Theatre and Art Institute (the workshop of Igor Lobach).

Until 2007 she served at the Academic Russian Drama Theatre of Uzbekistan. Since 1995 she has played at Mark Weil's Ilkhom Theatre in Tashkent, first as a guest actress and from 2007 in the main company. Her Ilkhom roles include Mrs Morales («Tortilla Flat»), Regina Engstrand («Ghosts»), Phaedra and Tsvetaeva («Tsvetaeva. Phaedra»), Olga («Three Sisters») and Dr F («Underground Girls»).

She teaches stage speech at Ilkhom's Drama Art Studio. On screen she appeared in the films «Kammi» (1991) and «Na krayu stoyu» (2008).

In 2000 she was awarded the title Honoured Artist of the Republic of Uzbekistan, and she won the Ilkhom prize for best actress of the year in 2007 and 2010.

In Ilkhom's repertoire she also plays Woman A in «Three Tall Women», the Ant and the Mother in «The Golden Dragon», Ba in «Lyudka» and the Elderly Woman in «Delhi Dance». Among her earlier roles are the leader of the chorus in «Medea», Clytemnestra in «The Oresteia», Regina Engstrand in «Ghosts», Lou Salomé and Zarathustra in «Zarathustra by Nietzsche» and Queen Rosamund in «King Ubu».