Ivan Urgant

Ivan Urgant was born in 1978 in Saint Petersburg

Urgant was born in Leningrad in 1978 into a family of actors, the son of Andrei Urgant and Valeriya Kiseleva. He is of Russian, Estonian and Jewish heritage. After his parents separated, he lived with his mother and his stepfather, the actor Dmitri Ladygin.

He studied at Music School No. 18 in Leningrad and at a gymnasium in the city. He graduated from the Saint Petersburg State Theatre Arts Academy. He then worked as a waiter, a bartender and a host of night shows in clubs.

In 1999 he began working at a Saint Petersburg radio station and hosted a program on 5TV. He moved to Moscow, worked in radio, and joined MTV Russia in 2001. He hosted shows on Russia-1 from 2003 to 2005 and has worked on Channel One since 2005, hosting programs such as Smak and Prozhektorperiskhilton.

From 2006 he made travel documentaries with Vladimir Pozner. He co-hosted the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest final and won TEFI awards several times. He also sings under the name Grisha Urgant.

He received Israeli citizenship in 2018. In February 2022 he posted against the war in Ukraine, and his show was taken off the air. He is married to Natalia Kinkladze, and they have 2 daughters.