Background

Danila Kozlovsky was born on May 3, 1985, in Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union. Danila Kozlovsky is the second of three sons of Nadezhda Zvenigorodskaya and Valery Kozlovsky. His older brother is Yegor, and his younger brother is Ivan. His mother is a stage actress whereas, his father served as a professor at Moscow State University specializing in marketing and mass communications. Danila's mother abandoned her career as an actress in order to devote all her time to raising her children. When he was a child, his parents decided to divorce and took separate ways.

Kozlovsky dealt with weight issues as a child. He began learning music and dance when he was quite young and later became a proficient player of both the saxophone and the alto. He was also passionate about football. He had to change school multiple times as a youth, probably because of disciplinary issues.

Education

In 1996, Kozlovsky enrolled at the Kronshtadt Naval Military School. He graduated from there in 2002 and subsequently began attending the Saint Petersburg State Theatre Arts Academy, where he received acting and directing lessons from Lev Dodin. In 2007, he graduated from theatre school.

Career

While Danila Kozlovsky was studying at the Saint Petersburg State Theatre Arts Academy, he began his acting career on stage. In 2006, he made his debut in Little Drama Theatre’s (Theatre de l’Europe) production of King Lear, portraying the role of Edger. His performance earned him a special prize of Expert Council of the "Golden Sofit" for Best Debut.

After he graduated from the Academy, he became an official member of the Little Drama Theatre and performed in the productions of Intrigue and Love, The Cherry Orchard, and the dramatic adaptation of Lord of the Flies.

Danila Kozlovsky made his first television appearance in 1998 or 1999 in the TV series Simple Truths. His debut big-screen appearance was in Aleksey German Jr’s directorial venture Garpastum in 2005. He played Nikolai, who, along with his brother Andrei (Yevgeny Pronin), takes on the daunting task of building a football stadium. For his performance, Kozlovsky won the Russian Guild of Film Critics "White Elephant Award" for the best male lead actor.

He garnered widespread popularity after his outing as the time-traveling grave robber and archaeologist Borman in Andrey Malyukov’s action-drama Black Hunters (2008). In 2009, he was cast as drag queen Lusya in the comedy-drama Jolly Fellows. In 2011, he lent his voice to Marcus Blackwell in the video game Need for Speed: The Run.

While Danila Kozlovsky gained a solid footing in the Russian film industry as a film actor, he continued to make appearances in a number of TV shows. In 2007, he played a character named Sergei in the television miniseries Lenin’s Legacy.

After Kozlovsky starred in the 2012 film Soulless he became a household name in Russia. He played the lead role of Max Andreev, a young ambitious executive manager who begins to reevaluate his priorities in life and career. The film was a hit and grossed $13 million. Danila went to reprise his role as Max Andreev in a sequel in 2015, for which he won the Nika Award as best actor.

In 2013, he starred in the TV miniseries Vsyo nachalos v Kharbine. He also appeared in the 2014 miniseries Dubrovsky, which was based on Alexander Pushkin’s unfinished novel of the same name.

His 2012 film The Spy was an adaptation of Boris Akunin’s novel The Spy Novel. In the following year, he starred in the hit film Legend № 17.

After making his debut Hollywood appearance in Vampire Academy in 2014, he appeared in sci-fi action thriller Hardcore Henry (2015), comedy Friday (2016), disaster drama Flight Crew (2016) and historical action drama Viking 2016).

His 2017 film Matilda garnered controversy when the State Duma deputy Natalia Poklonskaya launched a campaign to ban the film on religious grounds. He is set to portray Oleg of Novgorod in the upcoming sixth season of History’s Vikings.

Danila Kozlovsky wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the 2018 sports drama Trener (Coach). He has also produced and acted in the 2016 romantic comedy Status: Svoboden (Status: Free) and the 2018 biographical thriller In the Hood.

Achievements

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  Danila Kozlovsky’s portrayal of Max Andreev in Soulless (2012) and its sequel Soulless 2 (2015), secured his spot as one of the biggest stars in the Russian entertainment industry. The first film also brought him the Golden Eagle Award for Best Leading Actor in 2012.
  
  For a number of years, he was cited as a sex symbol by various media outlets in Russia.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • Viking

    (In the 10th century, after the death of his father, the y...)

    2016
  • Hardcore Henry

    (A first-person perspective action film from the eyes of H...)

    2016
  • Vampire Academy

    (A half-vampire training at a secret academy must battle e...)

    2014
  • Raspoutine

    (Franco-Russian historical film about the last year of the...)

    2011
  • Jolly Fellows

    (Welcome to Moscow's nightlife! A movie centered on a Mosc...)

    2009
  • Legend № 17

    (Biopic of Russian ice hockey legend Valeri Kharlamov from...)

    2013
  • Dovlatov

    (Dovlatov charts six days in the life of brilliant, ironic...)

    2018
  • Soulless 2

    (Max Andreyev tries to turn over a new leaf, living on an ...)

    2015
  • Soulless

    (Max, the protagonist, a 30-year-old top manager, is succe...)

    2012
  • Mathilde

    (This glorious costume drama is set at the twilight of Imp...)

    2017
  • Friday

    (Friday night is almost like a shortened New year's night....)

    2016
  • Status: Free

    (Nikita and Aphina are an ideal couple. That's what he thi...)

    2016
  • Garpastum

    (1914. The story of four friends, who are infatuated with ...)

    2005

• TV series

  • McMafia

    (McMafia journeys through a labyrinth of international cri...)

    2018

Politics

Kozlovsky usually doesn't discuss politics. He once stated: "I prefer not to discuss politics for one reason: I'm absolutely sure that I understand nothing about politics. I do not want to make a smart face and pretend that I am working in the Bely Dom [the Russian government's main administrative building in Moscow; literally translated as "White House"] but at the same time as a human being, I am pleased about the presidential pardons and to see that Pussy Riot and [Mikhail] Khodorkovsky have been freed. I have great respect for Khodorkovsky and feel happy when I see him as a free man."

Views

Since November 2013, Kozlovsky supports St. Petersburg Charitable Foundation, which helps children with autism. In 2014, together with Elizaveta Boyarskaya, he took part in the filming of the video “Everything is good” for the song from the charity animated series “Flying Animals”.

As of August 30, 2018, he is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Charity Fund for Helping Children with Bullous Epidermolysis Disease.

Quotations: "I don't like the fact that there are so few Russians in Hollywood, but it is understandable because of the historic relationship between America and Russia - the Cold War history, for example. It is kind of a cliche, but it's still with us."

"It is essential to speak English fluently. Maybe it is also lack of exposure. Remember, we are a very young film industry in Russia. It really has only developed in the last 20 years, after everything collapsed with the end of the Soviet Union. The relationship between Russian and European filmmakers is an emerging one, just now beginning to evolve."

Personality

When he was a child, Kozlovsky was a troubled kid and was always trying to persuade his brothers to misbehave, he was breaking windows, shoplifting and even more. Once he tried to sell his mothers jewelry in order to buy a watermelon. His mother understood that she was tired of boys' misbehavior and send them off to Kronshtadt Naval Military School. Yegor and Ivan soon left the school, but Danila stayed for six years. He later told that he never regretted that experience, which made him a completely opposite person, but still, he never wanted to follow a military lifestyle for his whole life.

He plays the saxophone and piano and has taken dancing and singing since childhood.

Interests

• singing

• Writers

  One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, Joseph Brodsky, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, William Shakespeare, Alexander Pushkin

• Sport & Clubs

  soccer, surfing

• Music & Bands

  Ludovico Einaudi, Dario Marianelli, Frank Sinatra, Liza Minnelli, Luciano Pavarotti, Louis Armstrong, Tony Bennett

Connections

When Danila First got into the theatre, he fell in love with Lisa Boyarskaya, but their relationship was not meant to be. The passionate romance was on its way to better things but like in almost all tragic love stories the father stepped in the way. Lisa’s father Mikhail Boyarsky was the man who was the wedge in the road of the highway of love between Lisa and Danila. She was forced to leave her early love, and since then they moved on to other parts of their lives. The actress’s friend later confirmed Mikhail later regretted separating the two lovers considering the life and career Danila was later able to forge for himself.

After the relationship with Lisa ended abruptly, Danila met another actress in the Academy with whom he fell in love with. While the two were working in plays together, Danila and Urszula got married in the fall of 2008.

The problem was everyone knew he was still in love with Lisa, the marriage was strenuous, and for a long period of time, Urszula was jealous of Lisa. According to one of Urszula’s friends, after one of her performances, she ran into the dressing room and started to cry saying he was still in love with Lisa which in turn resulted in the divorce of the two in 2011. The friend also said the actress tried getting pregnant a lot of time, but Danila was adamant about not wanting children.

The couple got separated and finally divorced, but years later they are still in each other lives with Danila once saying they care for each other and the situation they were in at the time of their marriage was not ideal to really prolong a relationship. Danila never married after his first divorce.

Since 2015, Danila lives together with a Russian actress and model, Olga Zuyeva.

Father:

Valery Kozlovsky

Mother:

Nadezhda Zvenigorodskaya

Brother:

Yegor Kozlovsky

Brother:

Ivan Kozlovsky

ex-girlfriend:

Elizaveta Boyarskaya

ex-wife:

Urszúla Magdaléna Máłka

girlfriend:

Olga Zuyeva

References

• Danila Kozlovsky on Instagram
• Danila Kozlovskiy Official Site