His parents moved to Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan where he graduated from high school.

In 1975 he started working at Vakhtangov Theater where he took part in famous plays Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (Брестский Мир),[3] Richard III and many others.

Filippenko left Vakhtangov Theater in 1994 and started his own theatrical project "Mono-Duet-Trio".

He directs and plays various mono-plays (one man shows) such as One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and Product in Praktika theatre,[9] "Enthusiast's demarche" in Polytheatre[10] and many others based on Russian classical literature.

In May 2022 Filippenko posted a photo of himself on Facebook wearing a vyshyvanka (a Ukrainian embroidered shirt) in protest against the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.