Irina Victorovna Apeksimova (Russian: Ири́на Ви́кторовна Апекси́мова, born 13 January 1966) is a Russian stage and screen actress. Director of the Taganka Theater.

Biography

Apeksimova was the child of classical musicians, Victor Nikolaevich Apeksimov and Svetlana Yakivna Apeksimova. Irina was the second child in the family; her older brother Valery later became a jazz composer and pianist in the United States.

Because her parents worked in the theater and music (her father taught at a music school and later taught piano at a conservatory, and her mother was choirmaster at the municipal Theater of Musical Comedy and later a choir conductor at a conservatory), Apeksimova was surrounded by talented and creative people. She often stayed backstage at the musical theater, where the child actors did their homework and played.

Apeksimova's parents divorced when she was in the eighth grade, and she moved with her mother to Odessa, where she studied acting.

After high school Apeksimova went to Moscow to enter the Moscow Art Theater School, but was rejected because of her Odessa accent. Back in Odessa, she joined the Odessa Opera Theater and danced for a year in the corps de ballet. She then applied again to the Moscow Art Theater School but was again rejected. After this setback, Irina returned to Volgograd and joined the Theater of Musical Comedy, in the corps de ballet.

After living in Volgograd for a year, Apeksimova had shed much of her Odessa accent, and applied for a third time to the Moscow Art Theater School. She was accepted and admitted in 1986 into Oleg Tabakov's class. At the school, Apeksimova became friends with fellow student Valery Nikolaev, and later married him. Her class, which also included Vladimir Mashkov and Yevgeny Mironov, was considered especially brilliant.

Apeksimova was graduated in 1990 and joined the studio at the Moscow Art Theatre, where she stayed until 2000. In 1994, she won the Best Actress Award at the Paris Film Festival for her role in the film October (Октябрь).

Apeksimova is divorced and has a daughter, Dasha.