Madlen Dzhabrailova

Madlen Dzhabrailova grew up in a theatrical family: her father, Rasmi Dzhabrailov, was a well-known actor at Moscow’s Taganka Theatre. In 1988, she entered the directing department of GITIS, joining Pyotr Fomenko’s workshop. While still a student, she played Meropia Davydovna Murzavetskaya in Alexander Ostrovsky’s “Wolves and Sheep”. Fomenko entrusted the twenty-year-old actress with the role of a sixty-four-year-old landowner — one of the most striking examples of his daring casting choices in student productions. After graduating from GITIS, Dzhabrailova joined the original company of the Pyotr Fomenko Workshop Theatre, where she has worked since its founding.

Among Madlen Dzhabrailova’s notable roles in Pyotr Fomenko’s productions are Natasha in “Three Sisters”, Princess Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskaya and Mademoiselle Bourienne in “War and Peace: The Beginning of the Novel”, and Baba Fima and the Cow in “One Absolutely Happy Village”, based on the work of Boris Vakhtin. The latter production particularly highlights her ability to inhabit Fomenko’s poetic, imaginative theatrical world, where animals, objects, and nature itself come alive alongside human characters. Her portrayal of Natasha in “Three Sisters” holds a special place among her performances: Dzhabrailova sought to see Chekhov’s heroine not merely as the destroyer of the Prozorov family’s familiar way of life, but as a human being with her own inner logic, feelings, and ideas of happiness.

Another important chapter in her artistic career has been her collaboration with director Ivan Popovski. In “The Adventure”, based on Marina Tsvetaeva’s work, Dzhabrailova played the Girl, a role for which she received the K. S. Stanislavsky Prize in 1998. She subsequently appeared in Popovski’s productions of “The Fairground Booth”, “The Poisoned Tunic”, and others. These performances revealed another dimension of her talent: the ability to combine psychological precision with physical expressiveness and the poetic stylization of the stage.

Her longstanding collaboration with director Evgeny Kamenkovich also occupies an important place in her career. In “The Most Important Thing”, based on Mikhail Shishkin’s novel “Maidenhair”, she played Isabella. This performance earned her a nomination for the Golden Mask National Theatre Award and an award from the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets. The production’s female acting ensemble also received a Special Jury Prize at the Golden Mask Awards. A particularly significant collaboration was “An Absolutely Incredible Event (Marriage in Two Acts)”, based on Nikolai Gogol’s play (2024). In this production, staged by Evgeny Kamenkovich, Dzhabrailova not only delivered a brilliant, virtually star-making performance as the matchmaker Fyokla Ivanovna, but also contributed to the directing process alongside Yuri Butorin and Ivan Vakulenko.

Madlen Dzhabrailova appears on screen relatively infrequently. One of her most notable film performances was the leading role in Oksana Bychkova’s “Plus One” (2008). Her portrayal of Masha earned her two Best Actress awards, at film festivals in Yalta and Honfleur, France.

Theatre education is another important part of Madlen Dzhabrailova’s professional life. She teaches acting in Evgeny Kamenkovich’s class at GITIS and previously taught for several years at VGIK, the Russian State University of Cinematography. In 2026, together with Natalia Kurdyubova, she established a new acting workshop at the GITIS Faculty of New Directions in Performing Arts, carrying on Pyotr Fomenko’s teaching tradition as a mentor to a new generation of actors.

• Awards and Honours
• Golden Mask Special Jury Prize in Drama and Puppet Theatre for the ensemble of female performers in “The Most Important Thing”, Pyotr Fomenko Workshop Theatre, 2008
• Golden Mask Award nomination in the category “Drama — Best Actress” for the role of Isabella in “The Most Important Thing”, Pyotr Fomenko Workshop Theatre, 2008
• Stanislavsky Prize for the role of the Girl in “The Adventure”, 1998
• Oleg Tabakov Foundation Award “For Acting Talent Demonstrated in the Production ‘The Barbarians’”, 2000
• Chaika Theatre Award in the “Synchronized Swimming” category for the acting ensemble of “Three Sisters”, 2004
• Moskovsky Komsomolets Theatre Award for the role of Natasha in “Three Sisters”, 2005
• Moskovsky Komsomolets Theatre Award for the role of Isabella in “The Most Important Thing”, 2007
• Best Actress Award for “Plus One” at the Russian-Ukrainian Producers’ Film Festival (Yalta, 2008)
• Best Actress Award for “Plus One” at the 16th Russian Film Festival in Honfleur (France, 2008)
• Moskovsky Komsomolets Theatre Award in the category “Established Artists — Best Actress” for her roles in “Triptych” (2010)
• Honorary Arts Professional of the City of Moscow (2025)