Biography
Anthony Nikolchev is an award-winning actor and creator, whose work has been featured in New York, Chicago, LA, and internationally including at the 2025 Venice Biennale of theater, under the artistic direction of Willem Dafoe.
He grew up in California's Bay Area. He studied at Wesleyan University under his longtime friend and mentor, Yuri Kordonsky - a student of Lev Dodin in St. Petersburg, Russia and a direct descendant of training tracing back to Konstantin Stanislavsky. Chicago was his first professional theater home, working for one year amongst Chicago companies such as Lookingglass and others (including a lasting friendship with actor Stephen Louis Grush, the artistic director of XIII Pocket Theatre, of which Anthony was a ensemble member). Following the Chicago premiere and success of his first self-written solo performance, "Look, What I Don't Understand," about his Bulgarian father's escape from communism, Anthony received invitations to tour his performance to several prominent theater festivals in Europe, which turned into a five-year odyssey to capture the training, life experiences and exposure to theatre and art offered by the deep traditions and progressive contemporary practice found in Central Europe, the UK and beyond.
Anthony has since performed his original solo performances and other plays on stages in Moscow, Warsaw, London, and throughout Europe. He has performed his two Best Actor (NYC's United Solo Festival) award-winning one man shows in New York City (Theater Row), Los Angeles (Odyssey Theatre Ensemble) and Chicago. The LA Times has called his performance a "tour de force," praising his "technique and honesty," while critics around the world have acclaimed his acting and writing as "brilliant," "formidable" and "breathless." Anthony has written several professionally produced plays for the stage, and regularly collaborates with Vivien Wood, a dancer/choreographer trained at the Royal Ballet in London and a performer with DV8 Physical Theatre Ensemble, as well as with members of the Polish theatre ensemble, Studio Matejka, with whom he trained extensively in the physical expression of the actor at the Grotowski Institute in Wroclaw, Poland (2010-2012).
Anthony has been awarded eight Best Actor awards in various theatre and film festivals, working on screen and stage in the US and Europe, and teaches movement for actors at the California Institute for the Arts School of Theater.
