Tigran Keosayan, film director, TV presenter. Biography

Tigran Keosyan was born in 1966 in Moscow. His family was closely connected with cinema: his father was director Edmond Keosayan, who shot the cult film The Elusive Avengers, and his mother was in—demand actress Laura Keosayan. Tigran's older brother David Keosayan was a famous film producer. He died in 2022.

As a child, Keosayan often spent time with his father on film sets. At the age of four, he performed his first role, playing in an episode of the film "The Crown of the Russian Empire, or the Elusive Ones Again."

After graduating from high school in 1983, Keosayan decided to enroll in the directing department of VGIK, but failed the entrance tests. But the first setback did not stop him — the future director got a job at Mosfilm, and a year later he successfully passed the exams at the university of his dreams. Fyodor Bondarchuk, Ivan Okhlobystin and Alexander Bashirov studied with him in the course of Professor Igor Talankin.

At the end of his freshman year, Keosayan was drafted into the army. He joined the air defense forces in the Moscow region. After demobilization, the future filmmaker returned to VGIK and continued his studies in the workshop of People's Artist of the USSR Yuri Ozerov. He received his diploma in 1998.

The darling of the screen: Tigran Keosayan has died

The professional path of the director was determined in early childhood

While still a student, Keosayan began acting in films. He played a cameo role in Yuri Ozerov's film Stalingrad (1989). At the same time, his directorial debut took place — in 1988, the short film "Sunny Beach" starring Fyodor Bondarchuk was released.

Keosayan shot his first full-length film "Katka and Shiz" in 1992. The script for it was written by the director's brother David. Soon after, the Keosayan brothers founded the Gold Vision studio, which created music videos and commercials. During this period, Tigran collaborated with many famous performers: he created a video sequence for songs by Natalia Vetlitskaya ("Look into your Eyes"), Irina Allegrova ("I'll Win you Back"), Igor Sarukhanov ("Violin Fox"), Mikhail Shufutinsky ("Neighbor") and others.

Nevertheless, Keosayan did not leave the director's job. In 1997, the detective melodrama "Poor Sasha" was released. The film won the TEFI Award for best feature film, and Alexander Zbruev, who played the honest burglar Vladimir Berezkin, was awarded the prize for best actor at the Kinotavr festival.

The film, as Keosayan himself recalled, was shot in just 18 days. To make it on time, the film crew worked 22 hours a day.

"Then I came down with atrial fibrillation. But it was impossible to miss the chance to make this film," the director admitted in an interview.

In subsequent years, Keosayan shot several more successful films: "The President and his granddaughter" (1999), "Lily of the Valley Silver" (2000), "Lily of the Valley Silver – 2" (2004), the series "Men's Work" (2001-2002), "The Hare over the Abyss" (2006).

In 2008, Keosayan directed the film "Mirage", which did not receive positive reviews from critics. His following projects turned out to be much more successful: the mini-series Yalta-45 (2011), the melodrama Three Comrades (2012) and the Olympic comedy The Sea. Mountains. Expanded clay" (2013).

In 2018, Keosyan presented the film "The Crimean Bridge. Made with love!" about the construction of a bridge over the Kerch Strait. The script for the film was written by the director's second wife Margarita Simonyan. Filming took place in conditions of real work at the facility. One of the last works of Keosayan was the film "The Immortals", which tells about the fate of Soviet soldiers who fought in Afghanistan.

In addition, Keosayan was the host of popular TV programs. From 2007 to 2009, REN TV hosted the talk show Evening with Tigran Keosyan. Then, from 2009 to 2010, the director, together with his wife Alyona Khmelnitskaya, hosted the program "You and Me", dedicated to the family life of Russian celebrities. At the same time, a continuation of his talk show called "Hot Evening with Tigran Keosayan" was broadcast on the DTV channel. In 2011, the director hosted the show "Stop being silent!".

In 2016-2024, Keosayan was the host of the satirical program "International Sawmill", in which the latest news from the world of politics was discussed in a humorous format.

Tigran Keosayan — personal life

Tigran Keosayan's first wife was actress Alyona Khmelnitskaya. The couple met in 1992 during the filming of a commercial. A year later, the actress and the director got married, and in 1994, their eldest daughter, Alexandra, was born. In 2010, her sister Ksenia was born.

In 2013, Keosayan and Khmelnitskaya officially divorced. Soon after, the director began a relationship with Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the Rossiya Segodnya news agency, but they did not marry until 2022. The couple has three children.: two daughters Mariana (2013) and Margot (2019) and a son Bagrat (2014).

Tigran Keosayan — Death

In January 2025, it became known that Keosayan had suffered clinical death and had fallen into a coma. According to his wife, the director suffered from heart problems for a long time. On September 26, Simonyan announced Keosayan's death. He was 59 years old.

"Tigran went to his Creator tonight," she wrote on her Telegram channel.

Simonyan also thanked everyone who prayed for her husband and asked not to disturb her family.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.