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Irina SotikovaActress
Date of Birth: 25.12.1973
Country:  Russia |
Content:
Biography of Irina Sotikova
Childhood and YouthIrina Sotikova, a St. Petersburg actress, was born on December 25, 1973. However, her childhood was far from the famous streets and avenues celebrated by Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. Her father was an officer, and until the age of 15, Sotikova lived in Mongolia, Chita, Khabarovsk, and military towns in the Russian Far East. She returned to Leningrad for high school and then enrolled in the St. Petersburg State Institute of Theatre, Music, and Cinematography named after Nikolai Cherkasov. During her studies, the name of the institute changed to the St. Petersburg State Academy of Theatre Arts. Irina was mentored by the renowned pedagogue Vladimir Viktorovich Petrov, who was awarded the special prize "Golden Sofit" three years after her graduation for his contribution to the education and upbringing of actors in St. Petersburg.
Theater and Films
A year before completing her studies, Sotikova joined the troupe of the Nikolai Akimov Comedy Theater. Her repertoire includes roles in plays by William Shakespeare, Alexander Ostrovsky, Rudyard Kipling, and Evgeny Schwartz. She made her screen debut in 1998, but her nationwide fame came ten years later after her debut in the comedy anthology "Gorko!" directed by Yuriy Mamin and Arkadiy Tigay. Actor Alexander Polovtsev, who played one of the grooms in Sotikova's debut film, was a star of the series "Ugly Fences" based on the works of Andrei Kivinov. The young actress was fortunate enough to appear in two seasons of this police saga. She portrayed an unnamed nurse in the fourth episode of the second season and Angelika in the fifth part of the seventh season. Sotikova also played supporting roles in the crime dramas "The Hounds" and "Liteyny, 4". In 2008, she began creating two enduring characters, adding traits to them over the years. The first is Captain Marina Pavlovna Voronina, the central heroine of the series "Traffic Patrol". This role brought the actress popularity and even saved her from traffic fines a couple of times. Actor Yuriy Yelagin became her long-time partner in the series. The second long-running TV character played by Sotikova is Lyuba, a friend of Alexander Ustyugov's character in "Menty's Wars". In 2018, Irina portrayed vivid characters in the mini-series "Step Into the Abyss" and "Family Homesteads". In the former, she transformed into a character named Dvoretskaya, while in the latter, she played a cunning hotel owner named Elena.
Personal Life
The 170 cm tall, 58 kg actress does not hide her personal life from her fans. In the summer of 2015, Irina married her colleague from the Nikolai Akimov Theater, Alexey Krasnocvetov, and shared their wedding photos on social media. Her husband directed productions involving Irina, such as the comedies "Dear Pamela, or How to Sew an Old Lady" and "I Take This Guy", both successful performances at the Vyborg Palace of Culture in St. Petersburg. In 2020, Alexey made his directorial debut with the short comedy film "Here Lived and Worked...", in which he also cast his wife. In interviews, the actress has expressed her desire to become a mother, but they do not have children yet.
Irina Sotikova Now
In the autumn of 2021, the 8-episode melodrama "Ask the Nurse" premiered on Channel One, featuring Sotikova. The central character of the series is a talented intensive care doctor who, after the death of a patient (the daughter of a high-ranking official), moves from Moscow to Petrozavodsk and starts working as a nurse. Elena Panova transformed into this doctor in the series. Alongside Sotikova, many talented actors from St. Petersburg theaters appeared in the series, including Valery Kukhareshin, Margarita Bychkova, Denis Pianov, Emilia Spivak, and Svetlana Vilgel. Pavel Yuzhakov-Kharlanchuk played the central male character in the melodrama.
In 2022, Sotikova added to her filmography with the mini-series "When February Ends". The premiere of the film, directed by Elena Tsyplyakova, took place at the end of February. Irina continued to perform on the stage of the Theater located on Nevsky Prospect (for example, on April 5, 2022, she once again shone in the role of Larisa Zakharnovna in the play "Love and Pigeons") and acted in films and series of various genres, including the detective thriller "Extra Lesson", and the melodramas "The Road to Happiness" and "Family Secrets".
