Vadim Grakovsky

Vadim Efimovich Grakovskiy was born on 26 April 1960 in Tashkent. Interested in the theatre from childhood, he took part in school amateur productions. After failing to enter Moscow drama schools he studied philology at Tashkent State University (graduating in 1990) and in 1996 completed the directing course at the Tashkent Theatre Institute.

From 1982 to 1994 he was an actor and assistant director at the studio theatre “Mayatnik” (18 roles). In 1994–2002 he worked as actor and director at the Tashkent Academic Drama Theatre, the Aladdin theatre, the Zarafshan agency theatre and the Lik dance theatre (eight productions directed, 21 roles played). In 1997–2000 he organised and directed Uzbekistan's young fashion designers' festival.

Since 2001 he has lived and worked in Germany, mainly Berlin. From 2003 he has been an actor and director at the Russian Chamber Theatre in Berlin, from 2006 head of a children's experimental theatre, and from 2008 an actor of the Russkaya Stsena theatre; he also played at the Jewish theatre Mehaye in Rostock. As a director he staged the dance-drama “Tchaikovsky's Wife: The Romance That Never Was”.

He has won best-actor prizes at international festivals in Sofia, Kazan and Tashkent and taken part in theatre festivals in Russia, Belarus, Ireland, Latvia and Moldova. In film he played the lead in “Obed dlya nishchikh”.