Yodgor Sa'diyev

Yodgor Habibovich Sa'diyev was born on 12 June 1946 in Tashkent into the family of the actor Habib Sa'diyev. His elder brother Xayrulla Sa'diyev is also an actor, a People’s Artist of the Uzbek SSR.

After school he studied at the A. N. Ostrovsky Tashkent Theatre and Art Institute and graduated in 1971. Since 1968 he has been in the company of the Hamza Uzbek State Academic Drama Theatre, now the Uzbek National Academic Drama Theatre. His first stage part was the French ambassador in the play “Mirzo Ulug'bek”.

On stage he has played more than 60 roles, among them Karl Moor in “The Robbers”, Kochkaryov in “Marriage”, Prometheus in “Do Not Throw the Fire, Prometheus”, Babur in “Starlit Nights”, Klimkov in “Not on the List”, Abror Hidoyatov in “The Show Goes On” and Ma'mur in “The Daughters-in-Law’s Revolt”. In 1983 he was nominated for “Best Male Role of the Year” for Filipp in the play “Ro'yo”.

In film he played Abdusalom in “Dilbarim” (“Plus One”), Olimjon in “The Street of Thirteen Poplars”, Sheikh Ja'far in “The Invincible”, Dadabo'ri in “Armon” and Tog'ay in “Jo'ra the Hunter”; in the television films “Abu Ali ibn Sino” and “Alisher Navoiy” he played Ibn Sina and Badiuzzamon. He also dubbed about 700 films.

He became widely known as Asadbek in the 20-part TV series “Shaytanat”, shot in 1998 after Tohir Malik’s novel. He directed episodes 7 to 20 of it and was its producer; in 2008 he directed the film “Iblis devori” (“The Devil’s Wall”). In the theatre he staged J. Poiret’s “Aldagani xotin yaxshi”, F. Bogdanov’s “The Night Guest” and S. Sirojiddinov’s “Life Behind the Door”.

From 1998 to 2012 he was artistic director of the Qalqon studio at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Uzbekistan. On 29 October 2020 he was appointed director of the Uzbek National Academic Drama Theatre. For his 80th birthday in June 2026 the theatre staged “Adolat fasli” (“The Season of Justice”), in which he played Amir Timur.

He is a laureate of the Hamza State Prize of the Uzbek SSR (1989), Honoured Artist of the Uzbek SSR (1990), People’s Artist of Uzbekistan (1998) and People’s Artist of Karakalpakstan and, since 2024, of Tajikistan. His orders are Mehnat shuhrati (2005), Fidokorona xizmatlari uchun (2018), El-yurt hurmati (2023) and Buyuk xizmatlari uchun (2026).