Tigran Keosayan | |
---|---|
Тигран Кеосаян | |
Born | Tigran Edmondovich Keosayan 4 January 1966 |
Occupation(s) | Director, writer, actor |
Years active | 1992–present |
Spouses | |
Children | 5 |
Tigran Edmondovich Keosayan (Armenian: Տիգրան էդմոնդի Քեոսայան, Russian: Тигран Эдмондович Кеосаян; born 4 January 1966) is a Russian film director, actor and television presenter. He is a winner of film festival prizes including TEFI, Kinotavr and Window to Europe Film Festival 2001.[1]
Described[by whom?] as a pro-Kremlin television presenter, the European Union, United Kingdom and Armenia[2] imposed sanctions on Keosayan as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Keosayan is the son of Armenian-Russian film director and composer Edmond Keosayan and actress Laura Gevorkyan. He studied at the all-Union (now all-Russian) state Institute of Cinematography (VGIK).
Keosayan is the director of Russian films including Katyka and Shiz (1992), Poor Sasha (1997), Lily of the Valley Silvery (2005), Hare Over the Abyss (2006), The Twelve Chairs musical (2003), a large number of clips for Mikhail Shufutinsky, Igor Sarukhanov, and Irina Allegrova. He is co-operated with Fyodor Bondarchuk, Alexander Zbruev and others.
Keosayan is an anchorman of the daily (from Monday to Thursday) analytical talk show With Tigran Keosayan on the Russian private TV channel REN-TV.[3]
Keosayan is married to Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of the Russian state-controlled broadcaster RT,[4][5][6] as well as the state-owned media group Rossiya Segodnya.[7]
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Keosayan was one of the individuals sanctioned by the European Union.[8][9] The reasons given for the sanctions were that Keosayan has spread anti-Ukrainian propaganda.[10]
Keosayan was included in the list of Russians under personal sanctions by the United Kingdom in March 2022.[11]
On 24 June 2022, Kazakhstan reported that Keosayan was denied entry. On 10 October, Armenian authorities declarated Keosayan and his wife Margarita Simonyan persona non grata as a "agents from different countries with Armenian surnames" who allow themselves a disrespectful attitude towards Armenia.[2]
On 30 November 2020, Keosayan's TV show "International Sawmill", for which Keosayan and his wife Margarita Simonyan are co-writers, aired a segment featuring Keosayan, and an actress in blackface posing as former United States President Barack Obama. In the segment, Keosayan, referring to Obama's book A Promised Land, asks the actress: "Do you consider this book your achievement?", to which the actress in blackface replies: "Of course."[12]
Keosayan then asks: "Because none of your relatives have written books?", after which the actress answers: "Because none of my relatives that came before me could write." Keosayan then states "you should have a rap musician, not the president". In the segment, the actress wears a bandana and gold chains and behaves in a way regarded as stereotypical to rappers.[12] The segment was widely deemed as being racist.[13][14]