Russian Personalities

People well-known in art, sport, film, fashion

Category Archive: Russian roots

Ornella Muti – Italian actress with Russian roots

ornella muti

Ornella Muti – beautiful actress

Ornella Muti is a legend of the world cinema, talented actress, outstanding personality and just a very beautiful woman.
Charming Italian actress was born on March 9, 1955. Her real name is Francesca Romana Rivelli. Her maternal grandparents were Russian nobles and had to leave Russia in 1917. They immigrated from Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg, Russia) to Estonia. She has an older sister, Claudia (born in 1951). Unfortunately, her father died when the girl was 10 years old.
At the age of 13 Ornella worked as a model for the Italian magazine – Fotoromanzi. At the same time she began working as an artist’s model and posed nude for erotic magazines.
To tell the truth, the girl never dreamed of becoming an actress. Her sister Claudia persuaded Ornella to go with her to a casting for a new film. And the girl received the role in the film The Most Beautiful Wife, which became her debut one.
You know, Ornella has primarily worked in Italian films, but she made her British film debut as Princess Aura in Flash Gordon in 1980. American movies she appeared in include Oscar (1991) and Once Upon a Crime (1992).
Muti was voted The Most Beautiful Woman in the World in 1994 by a worldwide poll of readers of the Class magazine.
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Oksana Kolesnikova, Russian pianist

Oksana Kolesnikova Russian-American composer

Oksana Kolesnikova – Russian-American composer


Oksana Kolesnikova is a Russian-American composer, concert pianist and entrepreneur, environmental activist through Cool Green. Awesome Oksana is the owner of Oksana School of Music and Oksana’s School of Foreign Languages in Los Angeles, California.
Beautiful girl was born in 1987, in Barnaul, Altai region, Siberia. At the age of five she began playing the piano. In 1993, after the break-up of the Soviet Union, at the age of 15, she and her family immigrated to the United States. They settled in St. Petersburg, Florida, where Oksana entered the St. Petersburg College.
Famous Kolesnikova became a winner of Florida State Young Artists Symposium Competition in 1999. Two years later, in August 2001 the girl graduated from the School of Music, Florida State University.
By the way, Kolesnikova became the first Russian-American female pianist to travel overseas to entertain the U.S. Troops in 2003.
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Olesya Rulin, Russian American actress

Olesya Rulin

Olesya Rulin, Russian American actress

Olesya Rulin is an American actress of Russian origin, best known for her role of Kelsi Nielsen in the film High School Musical.
Olesya Rulinkova (her real name) was born on March 17, 1986 in Moscow, USSR. She spent her childhood in a small town Likhoslavl, where her parents were engaged in the manufacture of hats. As a child she was fascinated by ballet.
In the early 1990s, her father emigrated from Russia to the United States. Two years later, when Olesya was eight years old, she together with her mother and brother moved to Texas. Later the family moved to Utah. When the girl was 12, she entered Model Search America modeling agency.
Beautiful Olesya studied at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah. Later Rulin graduated from West Jordan High School in 2005.
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Dasha Zhukova – Russian socialite and fashion designer

Dasha Zhukova

Dasha Zhukova – Russian socialite and fashion designer

Dasha Zhukova is one of the most famous Russian women abroad. She is a Russian socialite, philanthropist, entrepreneur, fashion designer and magazine editor, art patron, museum founder.
Daria Alexandrovna Zhukova was born on June 8, 1981 in Moscow. But other sources state she was born in 1983. But the age isn’t important for a beautiful girl. It should be a mystery for everyone). Beautiful girl was born in the family of businessman Alexander Zhukov and microbiologist Elena Zhukova. RIA Novosti reports that his real name is Alexander Radkin (later he took the surname of his wife). Alexander and Elena divorced when their daughter was 10 and the girl moved with her mother to the United States.
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