Biographie
Gregory Hlady (Hryhorii Hladiy), born in the scenic Ternopil region of Ukraine, moved from Lviv to Kyiv after finishing high school and graduated from the Karpenko-Karyi Theater Institute with a degree in acting and cinema. Driven by a passion for directing, he joined the directors' program at the State Institute of Theatre Arts in Moscow, studying under the renowned Russian director Anatoly Vassiliev. As one of Vassiliev's top students, he quickly became a highly sought-after actor and director in Eastern Europe.
Nevertheless, Hlady's theatrical style was not favored by Soviet authorities. In 1989, he relocated from Kyiv to Tallinn, Estonia. In 1990, a contract to perform in "Six Characters in Search of an Author" brought him to Montreal. His French-language staging of Franz Kafka's "Amerika" earned critical praise in both Montreal and Brussels. His direction of Harold Pinter's "The Homecoming" won him the Quebec Theater Critics' Award for best directing during the 1991-1992 season.
Alongside directing works such as Dostoyevsky's "The Idiot" (Lausanne, Switzerland), Ionesco's "Exit the King," and Sophocles' "Electra" (Montreal), Hlady has led master classes in Austria, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Ukraine. In 2000, he reunited with Vassiliev's company to portray Salieri in "Salieri and Mozart" in Rome. Recently, he appeared in the Paramount film The Sum of All Fears (2002) and stars in Kim Nguyen's new feature film, Le Marais (2002).
Currently based in Montreal, the Ukrainian actor is performing in Paula de Vasconcelos' theatre production of "The Other." Mr. Hlady speaks English, French, Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian.
