He graduated from the Moscow Art Theatre school-Studio, and played in the Riga Russian Drama Theatre and Mayakovsky Theatre.
In the 1990s, he left to the United States, and appeared Hollywood films such as The Saint, The Sum of All Fears, Lord of War, and Iron Manitoba 2 (as Anton Vanko) and television series such as The West Wing (Episode: The Lame Duck Congress), Alias, and 24. He was the professor of the Moscow Art Theatre Studio School and the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts, and was awarded the title of People"s Artist of Russia. Since 2003, he has been teaching at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting of Los Angeles and the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts.