Tigran Keosayan

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In this name that follows East Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Edmondovich and the family name is Keosayan.
Tigran Keosayan
Тигран Кеосаян
Three-quarters view of Keosayan against a white background
Keosayan in 2018
Born
Tigran Edmondovich Keosayan

(1966-01-04)4 January 1966[1]
Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Died26 September 2025(2025-09-26) (aged 59)
Moscow, Russia
Occupations
  • Director
  • writer
  • actor
Years active1992–2024
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1993; div. 2014)​
​
​
(m. 2022)​
Children5

Tigran Edmondovich Keosayan (Armenian: Տիգրան էդմոնդի Քեոսայան, Russian: Тигран Эдмондович Кеосаян; 4 January 1966 – 26 September 2025) was a Russian film director, actor, propagandist[2][3][4] and television presenter. He was a winner of film festival prizes including TEFI, Kinotavr, and 2001 Window to Europe Film Festival [ru].[5]

Career

[edit]

Keosayan directed several Russian films, including Katyka and Shiz (1992), Poor Sasha (1997), The President and His Granddaughter (1999), Silver Lily of the Valley (2000), Hare Over the Abyss (2006), and the propaganda film The Crimean Bridge. Made with Love! (2018), as well as a large number of clips for Mikhail Shufutinsky, Igor Sarukhanov, and Irina Allegrova. He collaborated with Fyodor Bondarchuk, Alexander Zbruev and others. Poor Sasha received a TEFI award as the Best Film of 1998 and Zbruev received the Best Actor prize at the 1998 Kinotavr festival. The President and His Granddaughter was awarded a special jury prize at the 2001 Kinotavr festival. Silver Lily of the Valley was awarded a prize at the 2001 Window to Europe Film Festival. In March 2020, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny alleged that roughly 46 million rubles (nearly $449,000) of state funds earmarked for The Crimean Bridge. Made with Love! went to the relatives of his second wife, Margarita Simonyan.[6][7]

Keosayan anchored the daily (from Monday to Thursday) analytical talk show Evening with Tigran Keosayan on the Russian private TV channel REN-TV. After Evening with Tigran Keosayan ended, he made a sequel show on another channel called Hot Evening with Tigran Keosayan. From 2009 to 2010, he hosted the show You and Me with his first wife, Alyona Khmelnitskaya. In 2011, Keosayan became the host of the talk show Stop Being Silent!, where topics of everyday life were discussed. He also appeared on Minute of Glory, People's Artist, Video Battles and Empire of Illusions: Safronov Brothers. Beginning in 2016, he hosted the evening entertainment satirical show International Sawmill on NTV.[6][8]

In 2000, Keosayan directed his first play, New. In 2003, he directed the musical The Twelve Chairs.[6]

Blackface segment about Barack Obama

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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."[9]

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 been 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.[9] The segment was widely deemed as being racist.[10][11]

Personal life and death

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Keosayan born in Moscow as 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).[12][13]

He was married to Margarita Simonyan,[7] the editor-in-chief of the Russian state-controlled broadcaster RT,[14][15][16] as well as the state-owned media group Rossiya Segodnya.[17] He was previously married to actress and television host Alyona Khmelnitskaya from 1993 to 2014.[6] He had two daughters with Khmelnitskaya and three children with Simonyan.[6]

Keosayan suffered from a long-standing heart condition and suffered heart attacks in 2008 and 2010. In January 2025, Simonyan said that Keosayan temporarily underwent clinical death and was in a coma.[18] He died on 26 September 2025, without regaining consciousness. Keosayan was 59.[19][20][21]

Sanctions

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After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Keosayan was one of the individuals sanctioned by the European Union.[22][23] The reasons given for the sanctions were that Keosayan has spread anti-Ukrainian propaganda.[24]

Keosayan was included in the list of Russians under personal sanctions by the United Kingdom in March 2022.[25]

On 24 June 2022, Kazakhstan reported that Keosayan was denied entry. On 10 October, Armenian authorities declared 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.[26]

Filmography

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Source:[1]

As a director

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  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)
  16. Immortals (2021)
  17. Seven Days of Peter Semyonovitch (2025)

As an actor

[edit]
  1. The Crown of the Russian Empire, or Once Again the Elusive Avengers (1971)
  2. Stalingrad (1990)
  3. Joker (1991)
  4. Silver Lily of the Valley (2000)
  5. The Heat (2006)
  6. The Crimean Bridge. Made with Love! (2018)

As a writer

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

Awards

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Kremlin propagandist Tigran Keosayan, husband of top Russian media figure, dies". RBC-Ukraine.
  2. ^ СМИ: Тигран Кеосаян включен в Казахстане в список «нежелательных для въезда лиц», в котором есть «террористы»
  3. ^ Russian propagandist Tigran Keosayan, husband of RT head Simonyan, dies after eight months in coma
  4. ^ Prominent Russian propagandist and husband of RT chief Simonyan dies after months in coma
  5. ^ Тигран Кеосаян. Биография и фильмография // russia.tv
  6. ^ a b c d e "Тигран Кеосаян". smotrim.ru. Retrieved 27 September 2025.
  7. ^ a b "Top Kremlin propagandist Tigran Keosayan, husband of RT chief Simonyan, dies at 59". The Kyiv Independent.
  8. ^ ""С Тиграном Кеосаяном"". 11 October 2009. Archived from the original on 11 October 2009.
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ O'Grady, Siobhán; Dixon, Robyn (30 November 2020). "Pro-Kremlin TV ridicules Obama with blackface skit". The Washington Post. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  11. ^ "Obama Blackface Skit on Kremlin-Funded TV Sparks Outrage". The Moscow Times. 30 November 2020. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  12. ^ "Чем запомнился Тигран Кеосаян". Kommersant. 26 September 2025. Retrieved 27 September 2025.
  13. ^ "«Сильный духом человек и настоящий патриот России»: Путин выразил соболезнования в связи со смертью Тиграна Кеосаяна". business-gazeta.ru. 26 September 2025. Retrieved 27 September 2025.
  14. ^ "Russian News, English Accent". cbsnews.com. 11 December 2005. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
  15. ^ Ioffe, Julia (September–October 2010). "What is Russia Today?". Columbia Journalism Review.
  16. ^ Margarita Simonyan biography Archived 21 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine, NewsExchange.org, accessed 20 September 2012.
  17. ^ "RT editor Simonyan to head Kremlin-backed news agency". BBC News. 31 December 2013. Retrieved 31 December 2013.
  18. ^ "RT Chief Simonyan Says Husband in Coma After Undergoing 'Clinical Death'". The Moscow Times. 9 January 2025. Retrieved 9 January 2025.
  19. ^ "Умер Тигран Кеосаян". Meduza (in Russian). Retrieved 26 September 2025.
  20. ^ "Симоньян сообщила о смерти Тиграна Кеосаяна". Российская газета (in Russian). 26 September 2025. Retrieved 26 September 2025.
  21. ^ "Умер Тигран Кеосаян". ria.ru (in Russian). 26 September 2025. Retrieved 26 September 2025.
  22. ^ Nolsoe, Eir; Pop, Valentina (4 March 2022). "Russia sanctions list: What the west imposed over the Ukraine invasion". Financial Times. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  23. ^ 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.
  24. ^ 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)
  25. ^ "Великобритания ввела новые персональные санкции против 350 россиян". Vedomosti. 15 March 2022.
  26. ^ "Zatulin and Simonyan banned from Armenia". jam-news.net. 10 October 2022.
  27. ^ "Указ Президента Российской Федерации от 24 января 2025 года". pravo.gov.ru (in Russian). 24 January 2025. Archived from the original on 25 January 2025. Retrieved 25 January 2025.
  28. ^ "Указ Президента Российской Федерации от 12 апреля 2024 года". pravo.gov.ru (in Russian). 12 April 2024. Archived from the original on 15 April 2024. Retrieved 12 April 2024.
  29. ^ "Путин присвоил звание Заслуженный деятель искусств Тиграну Кеосаяну". РИА Новости (in Russian). 12 April 2024. Archived from the original on 12 April 2024. Retrieved 12 April 2024.
[edit]
  • Media related to Tigran Keosayan at Wikimedia Commons
  • Quotations related to Tigran Keosayan at Wikiquote
  • Official website (in Russian)
  • Tigran Keosayan at IMDb