Biography
Svetlana Nikolaevna Kryuchkova was born on June 22, 1950, in Kishinev, Moldavia, USSR (now Chisinau, Moldova). Her father, Nikolai Kryuchkov, served as an army officer. Prior to her acting career, Kryuchkova worked at the ZIL automobile plant in Moscow. In 1973, she graduated from the Acting Studio named after Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko and spent two seasons as an actress at the Moscow Art Theatre. She gained widespread recognition after starring in the TV series The Long Recess (1973).
Since 1975, Kryuchkova has been a permanent member of the renowned Bolshoi Drama Theatre (BDT) troupe in St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad), having been personally invited by the esteemed director Georgi Tovstonogov. She collaborated with Tovstonogov for 14 years, performing in many of his stage productions and earning high praise for her commanding stage presence and effortless style. During this period, Kryuchkova worked alongside an exceptional ensemble of actors at BDT, including Sergey Yurskiy, Oleg Basilashvili, Kirill Lavrov, Zinaida Sharko, Elena Popova, Vladislav Strzhelchik, Vsevolod Kuznetsov, Gennadiy Bogachyov, and Andrey Tolubeev. Among her most acclaimed stage roles at BDT were Kupavina in Aleksandr Ostrovskiy's 'Volki i ovtsy' and Kostyleva in Maxim Gorky's 'Na dne' (Lower Depths).
Kryuchkova was honored with the title of People's Artist of Russia and won the Nika Award twice, in 1989, with an additional nomination in 1999. She has portrayed over 40 characters in film and television and has also performed on stage at the Gogol Theatre and the Galina Vishnevskaya Centre in Moscow. From 1998 to 2003, she served as a professor at the acting school of St. Petersburg University of Humanities. In 2003, along with her acting class graduates, Kryuchkova founded her own company, the Theatre-Studio of Svetlana Kryuchkova in St. Petersburg. There, she directed productions such as Aristophanes' comedy 'Lysistrata' (2005) and 'Blazhenny Ostrov' (2004), among others. The Theatre-Studio has been a popular entertainment venue in St. Petersburg for several seasons.
In addition to her theatrical work, Svetlana Kryuchkova is a well-known TV show host in Russia and is esteemed as an expert on Russian poetry. She has delivered numerous poetry recitals to sold-out audiences, performing works by Anna Akhmatova, Joseph Brodsky, Aleksandr Pushkin, David Samoylov, Marina Tsvetaeva, Ivan Bunin, Mikhail Lermontov, Boris Pasternak, and other notable Russian poets.
Svetlana Kryuchkova currently resides in St. Petersburg, Russia.
