[7] After secondary school, he studied engineering cybernetics at Tyumen State Oil and Gas University but dropped out within a year.

[9] He performed in many classical plays such as The Threepenny Opera, Hamlet, Macbeth, A Profitable Position, and Masquerade.

He also performed in some modern plays including the role of Toby in Martin McDonagh's A Behanding in Spokane.

[2] Noteworthy roles he played at the Moscow Pushkin Drama Theatre include Max in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing and Glum the giant in Grigori Gorin's The House That Swift Built.

He rose in popularity in 2005 after his performance in Aleksei Balabanov's black comedy Dead Man's Bluff playing failed criminal, Eggplant, alongside Sergei Makovetsky and Anatoly Zhuravlyov.