Background
Leontyeva survived the Siege of Leningrad, which claimed the life of her father.
Leontyeva survived the Siege of Leningrad, which claimed the life of her father.
After a brief stint at the Mendeleyev Institute, she attended the Vakhtangov Theatre School in Moscow.
She was one of the first television presenters in the Soviet Union. In 1948, she joined a theatre in Tambov. Among her most popular shows was "Ot Vsei Dushi" ("From the Bottom of My Heart"), which has been praised for its honesty and emotional depth.
She toured 54 cities of the Soviet Union with a stage version of the show.
She was also the host of the Goluboy ogonyok ("Blue Light"), a New Year"s Eve variety show, and Spokoinoi Nochi, Malyshi ("Good Night, Little Ones"), a daily program for children. In the 1980s, she hosted V gostyakh u skazki ("Visit to Fairy Tales"), a children"s show, and became popularly known as simply "Aunt Valya" (Russian: Тётя Валя).
On March 12, 2004, the Federation Council of Russia presented to her the medal "Foreign Contributions", revived from the 19th century. There is a statue of her more than 2m in height on the Goncharov street in Ulyanovsk opened on August 1, 2008, in the garden of the Ulyanovskiy Regional Muppets Theater which was recently named after Leontyeva.