Sergei Garmash

Sergei Leonidovich Garmash, born on September 1, 1958, in Kherson, Ukrainian SSR, is a Soviet and Russian film and stage actor who holds the title of People's Artist of Russia. His father, Leonid Trofimovich Garmash, began his career as a driver before completing an institute degree and moving into leadership roles, while his mother, Lyudmila Ippolitovna, worked throughout her life as a dispatcher at a bus station after completing seven years of schooling in a small village in Western Ukraine.

A self-described difficult student who was expelled from school on multiple occasions, Garmash initially intended to pursue studies at a nautical institute but instead submitted documents to the Dnepropetrovsk theatrical school, from which he graduated with a degree in Puppet Theater Arts. He subsequently worked in Kherson, performing on tour in surrounding villages and collective farms. Following two years of military service in a construction battalion of the Soviet Army, stationed in the town of Bologoye, Garmash traveled to Moscow in 1980 to apply to theater schools. He ultimately enrolled at the Moscow Art Theater School, studying in the class of I. M. Tarkhanov, and upon graduating in 1984 was accepted into the troupe of the Moscow theater Sovremennik.

Garmash made his film debut in 1984, playing Urin in Alexei Simonov's heroic ballad Detachment alongside Aleksandr Feklistov. A succession of film roles followed through the 1980s and 1990s, including Vladimir Khotinenko's In the Shooting Wilderness (1985), Sergei Solovyov's Wild Pigeon (1986), Gabriel Yeghiazarova's Ivan the Great (1987), Yuri Ozerov's Stalingrad (1989), and Yuri Kara's The Master and Margarita (1994), in which he portrayed the poet Ivan Bezdomny. By the turn of the millennium he had appeared in more than fifty films. On television, he took on the recurring role of Major Korotkov in the detective series Kamenskaya across five seasons, and appeared in the twelve-episode series Brigada as San Sanych, a SWAT commander.

Among his most recognized screen performances is his role as labor teacher Semen Bespalchikov in Sergei Solovyov's drama Tender Age (2001), for which he received both the Nika Award and the Golden Eagle. He subsequently earned additional Nika Awards for his work in My Half-Brother Frankenstein (2004), 12 (2007), and Home (2011). Other notable film credits include the role of warrant officer Nikolai Krauz in Vladimir Khotinenko's 72 Meters (2004), drunkard Yasha in Pavel Lungin's Poor Relatives (2005), Captain Popov in Andrzej Wajda's Katyn (2007), and Mels's father in Valery Todorovsky's 1960s-set musical Stilyagi (2008). In 2017 alone, Garmash appeared in several productions, including Attraction, in which he played a deputy prime minister, Matilda, where he portrayed Emperor Alexander III, and Going Vertical, in which he played Sergei Pavlov, Chairman of the State Committee for Sport of the USSR. He also provided the voice of Gena in the 2023 film Cheburashka and its 2025 sequel.

In 1996 and 1997, Garmash brought his stage work to Broadway, appearing in three productions: The Cherry Orchard, Into the Whirlwind, and The Three Sisters. In 2013, he served as a member of the jury at the 35th Moscow International Film Festival. His wife is Russian actress Inna Timofeeva, born in 1963, a graduate of the Moscow Art Theatre School and a member of the Sovremennik theater company.