Yana Gladkikh is a Russian born film director and actress, whose work bridges the traditions of Russian psychological theater and contemporary cinema. She began her career as an actress, graduating from the Moscow Art Theatre School, founded by Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, where she received the prestigious Golden Leaf Award for outstanding student work.

While still a student, Gladkikh was cast in a leading role in the stage adaptation of Ivan Turgenev’s legendary novel A Nest of Gentlefolk. Shortly after the premiere, she was invited to join the Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre, becoming the youngest actor in the company. She went on to perform a range of classical roles including Sasha in Chekhov’s Ivanov and Anya in The Cherry Orchard, and later starred as Katya in Five Evenings at the Pyotr Fomenko Workshop Theater, in a production that remained a major success of the Moscow stage for over a decade.

Transitioning into directing, Gladkikh trained at the Higher Courses for Scriptwriters and Film Directors in Moscow — a legendary program whose faculty has included filmmakers such as Andrei Tarkovsky, Andrei Konchalovsky, Nikita Mikhalkov and Sergei Solovyov. She graduated in 2018 (workshop of Vladimir Khotinenko, Pavel Finn, Vladimir Fenchenko). Her thesis film Anna Vice Versa won the Grand Prix at the National Debut Film Festival “Dvizenie.”

Her feature debut, Krasotka v udare (The Babe!), was distributed by Sony Pictures, became a box-office hit on its opening weekend, and received the Russian Media Film Award “Resonance” for Best Debut.   Within the next three years, she directed two major streaming series — Amore More (8 episodes) and Khochu ne mogu! (6 episodes) — establishing herself as a director working across both auteur cinema and mainstream platforms.

Gladkikh moved to the United States to pursue her MFA in Directing at the American Film Institute Conservatory (AFI), where she directed five short films over two years. Her AFI thesis film, Dog Sees God, was selected for AFI Fest showcase 2025 and premiered at the Beverly Hills Film Festival 2026. Alongside her directing work, she continued performing internationally: she appeared as a lead actress in Dybbuk with the Arlekin Players Theatre (recipient of the Elliot Norton Award and Critics’ Pick recognition), performed in Flowers for Columbine in Venice, and directed the stage production Beethoven, which returned for multiple sold-out runs due to audience demand.

Today, Yana Gladkikh works across theater and film in the United States and Europe as both a director and actress, developing projects that merge European auteur sensibility with contemporary storytelling. In parallel, she privately coaches professional actors and leads masterclasses, where she has developed a distinctive methodology that blends Russian psychological theater, Michael Chekhov‘s physical techniques, and modern screen acting practices. She balances her artistic career with motherhood, bringing a deeply personal perspective to stories about complex family dynamics, identity and raw female experiences.