Tigran Keosayan

Russian director, writer and actor (born 1966)

Tigran Keosayan

Тигран Кеосаян

Tigran Keosayan in 2009

Born|

Tigran Edmondovich Keosayan

(1966-01-04) 4 January 1966 (age 58)

Moscow, RSFSR, USSR

Citizenship| Russian
Occupation(s)| Director, writer, actor
Years active| 1992–present
Spouses|

Alyona Khmelnitskaya

(m. 1993; div. 2014)​

Margarita Simonyan

(m. 2022)​

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 of Armenian origin. He is a winner of film festival prizes including TEFI, Kinotavr and Window to Europe Film Festival [ru] 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.

## Biography

[edit]

Keosayan with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Tatyana Mitkova, October 2018

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]

## Personal life

[edit]

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]

### Sanctions

[edit]

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]

## Controversy

[edit]

### Blackface segment about Barack Obama

[edit]

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]

## Filmography

[edit]

### As a film director

[edit]

1. Katyka and Shiz (1992)
2. Cases Funny, Family Matters (1996, TV Series)
3. Poor Sasha (1997)
4. The Death Directory (1999, TV series)
5. Silver Lily of the Valley (2000)
6. The President and His Granddaughter (2000)
7. Men's Work (2001, also TV series: 2005)
8. Hare Over the Abyss (2006)
9. Rabbit Over the Void (2006)
10. Mirage (2008)
11. Yalta-45 (2011, mini-series)
12. Three Comrades (2012, mini-series)
13. Sea. Mountains. Exclay (2014, TV series)
14. Actress (2017, TV series)
15. The Crimean Bridge. Made with Love! (2018)

### As an actor

[edit]

1. Joker (1991)
2. Silver Lily of the Valley (2000)
3. The Heat (2006)

### As a writer

[edit]

1. Cases Funny, Family Matters (TV Series, 1996)
2. Silver Lily of the Valley (TV series, 2005)

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Тигран Кеосаян. Биография и фильмография // russia.tv
2. ^ a b "Zatulin and Simonyan banned from Armenia". jam-news.net. 10 October 2022.
3. ^ ""С Тиграном Кеосаяном"". 11 October 2009. Archived from the original on 11 October 2009.
4. ^ "Russian News, English Accent". www.cbsnews.com. 11 December 2005. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
5. ^ Ioffe, Julia (September–October 2010). "What is Russia Today?". Columbia Journalism Review.
6. ^ Margarita Simonyan biography Archived 21 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine, NewsExchange.org, accessed 20 September 2012.
7. ^ "RT editor Simonyan to head Kremlin-backed news agency". BBC News. 31 December 2013. Retrieved 31 December 2013.
8. ^ Nolsoe, Eir; Pop, Valentina (4 March 2022). "Russia sanctions list: What the west imposed over the Ukraine invasion". Financial Times. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
9. ^ Cunningham, Erin; Santamariña, Daniela; Alcantara, Chris (15 March 2022). "Who's in Putin's inner circle and have they been targeted by sanctions?". The Washington Post. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
10. ^ DURCHFÜHRUNGSVERORDNUNG (EU) 2022/336 Durchführungsverordnung (EU) 2022/336 des Rates zur Durchführung der Verordnung (EU) Nr. 269/2014 über restriktive Maßnahmen angesichts von Handlungen, die die territoriale Unversehrtheit, Souveränität und Unabhängigkeit der Ukraine untergraben oder bedrohen, PDF, (German)
11. ^ "Великобритания ввела новые персональные санкции против 350 россиян". Vedomosti. 15 March 2022.
12. ^ a b Haroun, Azmi (1 December 2020). "Russian state TV broadcaster features racist segment of an actress in blackface doing a portrayal of Obama". Business Insider. Retrieved 17 March 2022.
13. ^ O'Grady, Siobhán; Dixon, Robyn (30 November 2020). "Pro-Kremlin TV ridicules Obama with blackface skit". The Washington Post. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
14. ^ "Obama Blackface Skit on Kremlin-Funded TV Sparks Outrage". The Moscow Times. 30 November 2020. Retrieved 13 January 2022.

## External links

[edit]

* Media related to Tigran Keosayan at Wikimedia Commons
* Quotations related to Tigran Keosayan at Wikiquote
* Official website (in Russian)
* Tigran Keosayan at IMDb

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* Germany
* Poland

*[m.]: married
*[div.]: divorced