Yana Krainova - biography, photo, personal life, news, filmography 2020

Childhood and youth

Yana was born on September 28, 1986 in Jurmala. The girl’s parents (Yana is a late child in a family of simple engineers) were sure that they would have a son, whom they were going to name Maxim. Surprisingly, both in childhood and adolescence, Krainova really showed masculine qualities of character - she was assertive and straightforward.

Yana Krainova in childhood

Yana could not be denied artistry either: the girl always read poetry at matinees, constantly participated in school ensembles, sang and danced, and since 1995 she studied flute at a music school.

School photo of Yana Krainova (2002)

In high school, Yana went to study in Riga - Krainova chose a school where creative skills were developed.

According to Yana, she was a naughty teenager. At the age of 15, she dyed her hair bright beetroot color and got her navel pierced. The desire to be creatively realized brought 11th-grader Yana to the theater studio - a couple of classes later, the girl firmly decided that she wanted to become an actress.

Yana Krainova's height is 175 cm

After graduating from school, Krainova went to the capital of Russia and submitted documents to all theater universities. As a result, the girl was accepted into GITIS and VGIK, and Yana chose the latter - also because she, as a foreign student, was given a 50% discount on her studies.

During my student years

Krainova became one of the most successful students of the course. For her participation in the graduation performances “...The Third...” (Cherubins de Gabriak) and “The Last” (Nadezhda), the girl received the Golden Leaf award, and her role in “... The Third...” brought her a prize from the T.F. Foundation. Makarova and S.A. Gerasimova.

Biography

Yana Krainova is a Russian actress of Latvian origin, who gained recognition from viewers thanks to her starring role in the medical television series “The Diary of Doctor Zaitseva.”

Krainova was born in Jurmala, into a family of engineers. The parents of the future actress gravitated toward the exact sciences, but the girl demonstrated her interest in creativity from an early age. Yana attended a music school, where she learned to play the flute.

Actress Yana Krainova

The girl went to a comprehensive school in her native Jurmala, but later, when she learned that a specialized class with a theatrical focus had been opened in Riga, she transferred there. Yana traveled to classes in another city every day, covering a distance of over 50 kilometers in each direction. And in her senior year, the girl additionally began studying at an acting studio under the guidance of Victor Yanson.

Yana Krainova in childhood

The girl goes to Russia for higher education. At the entrance exams to various theater universities, Yana was quite convincing and received an offer to become a student at GITIS and VGIK. Krainova’s choice fell on the last of them, since the foreign girl needed to pay for expensive tuition, and the leadership of VGIK made concessions and agreed to accept the talented applicant with payment of half the cost.

Yana Krainova in her youth

Many future film stars studied at the Institute of Cinematography with Yana, including Anna Mikhailovskaya and Ivan Solovyov. By the way, the actress’s classmates still keep in touch, call each other on the phone and rejoice at each other’s successes.

The actress's graduation performances were productions of the plays "Three Sisters" by Chekhov, "The Last" by Gorky and "Fools" by Neil Simon. The actress also played a matchmaker in the production of “The Marriage Game” based on Gogol’s play “Marriage”, appeared in the play “...The Third...” and took the stage in the leading role in the play “The Uninvited Guest”, based on Filatov’s play “The Cuckoo Clock” .

Yana Krainova

For her role in the production “...The Third...” the actress became a laureate of the 2009 Golden Leaf Award and the Gerasimov and Makarova Foundation Award.

Actor career

Krainova made her film debut in her senior year, playing a small role in Karen Shakhnazarov’s film “The Vanished Empire.” However, the good start did not have a stormy continuation. After graduating from VGIK in 2009, the girl went through difficult times. Yana did not have a job or money to rent a house. To earn money, Yana worked as a children's animator in a restaurant on Rublyovka.

Yana Krainova in the series “The Diary of Doctor Zaitseva”

Fate smiled on the girl only in 2011 - she was unexpectedly offered the main role in the series “The Diary of Doctor Zaitseva”, thanks to which the actress became popular. Her heroine Sasha Zaitseva is a romantic, somewhat naive person and a sweet tooth, but at the same time a true professional and promising surgeon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfLXz5PgNT4

For the role, Yana gained 8 kg. “Actually, I advocate a healthy lifestyle, so I had to give up my rules,” recalls the actress. But by the beginning of the second season of the series, which began filming in 2012, Yana had lost excess weight. Alexandra Zaitseva also changed - she cast aside infantilism, became bolder and more decisive.

By the second part of “The Diary of Doctor Zaitseva” Yana Krainova lost weight

After the release of the series, Krainova received interesting job offers. Soon the actress played leading roles in Andrei Shcherbovich-Vecher’s tragicomedy “Fossil” (2012) and in the mini-series “The Long Road” (2013), appeared as deputy dean Zhanna Dyakonskaya in the comedy series “Anzhelika”, and also starred in the melodrama “Blood” with milk" (2014) and the comedy "New Year's Dad" (2014).

Yana Krainova starred a lot in Russian TV series

Krainova also returned to the theater stage, taking part in 2013 in the enterprise “The Uninvited Guest” (dir. Guzel Kireeva). At the end of the same year, Krainova went to Los Angeles to learn acting from the famous Hollywood teacher Ivana Chubbuck - at one time Halle Berry, Gerard Butler, Charlize Theron, Sharon Stone and Brad Pitt took lessons from her.

Yana Krainova in the series “Quest”

In 2020, the actress appeared in the multi-part cyber action film “Quest” with Pavel Priluchny, Marina Petrenko and Agata Muceniece. The following year, Yana had two notable roles at once - in the 4-episode melodrama “At the Crossroads of Joy and Sorrow” (with Marina Konyashkina and Kirill Kyaro) and the mini-series “This is what a woman does,” which was presented on the Russia-1 channel.

In 2020, Yana played in the enterprise “The End of the Affair” based on the stories of Alexander Vampilov, directed by Andrei Zapuskalov.

Filmography

Personal life of Yana Krainova

While still in high school, at a theater studio in Riga, Krainova met a young man with whom she eventually began an affair. The young people dated for 8 years, and most of this time the lovers had to maintain a relationship at a distance.

Yana Krainova and Ilya Lyubimov, her colleague from “Doctor Zaitseva”

In 2020, Yana and her boyfriend, whose name the actress never disclosed to journalists, broke up. It’s difficult to say whether Yana’s heart is busy now or not.

In addition to Russian, the actress knows Latvian and English very well, and also speaks fluent German and a little Ukrainian and French.

Yana has good vocal abilities: in addition to a specialized course, during her student years she took private lessons.

Yana Krainova: I’m not one of those girls who calls my mother every day.

Blogs -> Cinema -> Yana Krainova: I’m not one of those girls who calls my mother every day.

FREEZE FRAME OF Dmitry Gurbanovich

On the set with Yana we were in the frame. Afterwards we talked. It was an interesting conversation.

Dmitry Gurbanovich: Yana, is the profession of an actress a conscious choice or was it an accident? Y.K.: You know, there is a natural predisposition, which probably determines the choice. Nature has endowed me with activity, sociability and a charming smile. I used all this literally from the first grade. D.G.: Where did you have to use your acting skills?

Yana Krainova:

She always enjoyed acting as the host of school matinees and never refused to read poetry or dance. I just wanted to. As a child, you do everything easily, without thinking, and don’t make far-reaching plans. As a teenager, I became interested in artistic expression. At that time, expressive reading competitions were held, and each school nominated its representative. I was given such an honor; I had to read a poem and prose. Since this happened in Latvia, I myself am from Jurmala, some of it was in Russian, some of it was in Latvian. First I participated in the competition from the school, then from the district, and so I reached the republican competition, which was held in Riga. I read prose in Russian – Gumilyov’s “The Violin of Stradivarius” and a poem in Latvian. I didn’t win the main competition, but I was one of the top three winners. This can be considered the beginning of my acting career. In high school, I studied in Riga and began to think seriously about career guidance. You had to choose a profession, but how can you choose if you don’t try? Realizing that I would soon have to enroll and need to seriously prepare for this, I went to the theater studio. My goal was to check in advance how suitable it was for me. The theater was wonderful. Imagine, in old Riga, in the attic. You come there at 15 years old and find yourself in another world. And the leader was wonderful - Vinnik - Viktor Nikolaevich. He trained us on Mikhail Chekhov, Jerzy Grotowski, and taught us to know ourselves. It was there that I finally understood - this is my path.

Dmitry Gurbanovich:

Have you decided to go to theater school?

Yana Krainova:

: Yes, I decided that I would go to Moscow and began to prepare without telling anyone about my plans. But why didn’t I ask anyone what it meant to enter the theater? What is the program? I don’t know... I looked at the requirements: poem, prose, fable - everything that I can do well. But I had no idea that there was your material and not yours. And when I told my parents that I was going to go to theater school, I didn’t find much support. But I thought very wisely: I’d rather try than regret later that I didn’t give myself a chance. And she left - in a red dress, with a flute, with a prepared program, with which she would not take herself to the theater today. At VGIK I read Gogol’s Notes of a Madman and delivered the final monologue from a woman’s perspective. I decided: a good monologue, why not? The teacher, gray-haired and serious, listened and listened and summarized: “Yes... I have never seen such impudence. Proceed to the next round!” To some extent, ignorance, lack of boundaries and a “burning eye” helped me. I believed that I had the right to enroll because I really wanted it. And I did!

Dmitry Gurbanovich:

You are great on set, you act very well. Does the combination of talent and acting school help?

Yana Krainova:

When I was accepted into VGIK without patronage or cronyism, I really believed in my talent. I did it honestly. During four years of study, you constantly check yourself whether you are developing in the right direction or not. And in four years I completed this school in full. When you take on a wealth of knowledge, you don’t know exactly when it will come in handy. But when you find yourself on some related project, where there is no organization and the director does not consider it necessary to explain the task, no one helps you at all, you are the main character, all responsibility is on you. And you are alone. If you are uninteresting, the viewer will simply change the channel. This is where baggage comes up. You yourself analyze the material - what we were taught at VGIK, and not just talk and color something with your voice. And very quickly you tell yourself all this. You see, Dima, what production is like today. Often scenes are filmed in the first take, and no one will give you the opportunity to repeat them. And this is not just school, but also experience. Of course, “The Diary of Doctor Zaitseva” gave me a colossal impetus, where I played my first leading role. Two seasons of 24 episodes. Each filmed for six months, and we had such shifts when I could change clothes and make-up up to 17 times and play the same number of scenes. I also reminded the costumers what I should be wearing, and they were surprised how I could remember it.

Dmitry Gurbanovich:

Yana, you don’t have many roles. Why doesn't a good actress get more acting? Do you not accept offers yourself or are they simply rarely invited?

Yana Krainova:

After Zaitseva, I really refused medical stories for a very long time. They offered a lot. You know, like in Russian show business - by thumb. The Russian Bridget Jones, who is also a doctor, played this role, and this image can be used. I understood that I had earned a little money for a living and could rest a little. After all, if this image sticks, then it will be very difficult not to remain an actress of one role. When I got into shape—I gained weight especially for “Doctor Zaitseva”—I began auditioning for the roles of strong women—the opposite type of Zaitseva. And after a while I became convinced that I could do a lot. Several films with my participation have not yet been released or have already... The actor is filming, and the further fate of the film depends on the producer.

Dmitry Gurbanovich:

Do you have your own personal agent?

Yana Krainova:

Of course, it’s very difficult without an agent. When we were filming the series, my main partner on the set was Ilya Lyubimov. He was working without an agent at that time, but: firstly, he is older, he already has baggage. Secondly, he is an actor of the Fomenko Theater, they know where to find him, and thirdly, he is a man. Ilya could communicate directly with the producers, but I could not. I want to be in the frame so that the producer’s contractual payment obligations are not associated with the actress. Therefore, some other person must negotiate about the money.

Dmitry Gurbanovich:

Yana, don’t you work in the theater?

Yana Krainova:

No, I don’t work in the theater, I had enterprises, and now another one is in the process of rehearsal.

Dmitry Gurbanovich:

Is this your principled position?

Yana Krainova:

You know, when we graduated in 2009, the crisis struck - there was no time for spectacles. And our course master, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Grammatikov, somehow did not engage in the employment of his graduates. It is the responsibility of the master to call the theaters, offer to watch their charges, and put in a word. Everything is built on human relationships. And we showed ourselves as best we could so as not to be exiled. Then doubts began to overcome me: do I need this? At first, everything seemed different from how it turned out in reality. I graduated somewhat disappointed, because I imagined one thing, but in life everything turned out differently. I just realized that everything is imperfect: there is no ideal theater, there is no ideal cinema. I went to all these “Mossovets” and realized that they wouldn’t take me there. Because I didn’t want this myself, I was just afraid to stay on the street. There was no such desire to take my place as upon admission.

Dmitry Gurbanovich:

Do you have any related profession that allows you to earn a living when you’re not filming?

Yana Krainova:

No, I'm an actress, my specialty is cinema. There was simply no time to master other professions. This is how the circumstances turned out. After graduation, the year turned out to be very difficult - in Moscow, no money, nowhere to live. Thank God, a job turned up as an animator in a “cool” restaurant on Rublevka - on weekends I worked with children while their parents were on vacation. I finally started earning my own money in order to afford to rent a room in Moscow at that time, because I had to live with friends for a year. It was very difficult, but I went through a good school. Due to my character, everything should be my way, everything should be laid out on the shelves. And fate brought a surprise - I had to literally survive. And finally, my agent called me and offered to act. I even agreed to play the role of a cactus. Perhaps I needed this year to realize that I still want to be an actress.

Dmitry Gurbanovich:

What if they stop inviting you to the cinema?

Yana Krainova:

I’m not very good at math, but I can count money and I can save everything I earn. It seems like I don’t really deprive myself, but I’m not a crazy person. I must have a cash cushion.

Dmitry Gurbanovich:

As an actress, you have achieved success, and what is the meaning of the concept of “family” for you?

Yana Krainova:

I'm not the kind of girl who calls my mom every day to share absolutely everything. I'm very independent. We grew up in the 90s when people had to work a lot. I have been left at home alone since I was 5 years old. Apparently, that’s why I grew up self-sufficient, I feel good with myself. My mother and I are not friends - we have a slightly different relationship. No family traditions have developed, again, due to lack of time. I understood that my parents worked for me, but somehow the family component did not happen. And therefore I have no need to create my own family. It seems to me that I am only now beginning to understand what meaning is contained in the concept of “family”, only now am I beginning to move towards it. I do not belong to the category of women who necessarily need a husband and children to be happy, and without this they are incomplete. I don't have this.

Dmitry Gurbanovich:

Are there other priorities?

Yana Krainova:

I really want to realize myself as an actress. And for now this is in my foreground. Maybe because I haven’t yet met a person for whom I would be willing to give up my dream.

Dmitry Gurbanovich:

You have a lot of followers on social networks, in particular on Instagram. What is the reason for such popularity?

Yana Krainova:

I want to tell you that in reality there are not so many of them, but more than 15 thousand. But if I had done Instagram when I was filming the role of Zaitseva, and a flurry of popularity hit me, the numbers would have been three digits. And I made it relatively recently. And these subscribers are truly “golden” for me. These are the people who are either the most devoted, or those who are interested in the new Yana Krainova. They may not even know me as an actress, but they are interested in my thoughts and photographs. I love them.

Dmitry Gurbanovich:

Does this give you something besides realizing your own importance in the eyes of other people?

Yana Krainova:

I had an interesting story with Instagram.
Recently I met a train from Riga - my mother was arriving. And I took a selfie in front of this arriving Latvian Express. And I wrote a post in which I briefly outlined how much is connected with this Riga station. She told me how once, when I was studying at VGIK, I met my mother - she had to give me money. She was late, running, out of breath. I ran to the platform, the train had already started moving, I saw my mother in the door of the carriage, and she threw me a handkerchief with money and validol. I fall on the platform and cry - I feel so sorry for myself. And this post was seen by the wonderful producer and TV presenter Sergei Mayorov. “Indian Summer”, “Cinema in Details” are his projects. We know each other from movies, he filmed me in “New Year’s Dad” and was very inspired by the post. Sergei was just working on a new project - he was filming a series of programs “Once Upon a Time” on NTV - stories about how famous people took their first steps in Moscow. And he made a program about me. Dmitry Gurbanovich:
What could you wish for people who will read the interview?

Yana Krainova:

Lately, I have been thinking very often about how important it is not to be a categorical person - to understand that there are not only black and white in life, but also many more colors. And this is also life. That your opinion is not the only correct one, there is another opinion, and it must be accepted and respected. And I would really like to wish readers to cultivate this skill in themselves. If people are a little different from what we imagine them to be, not like us or do not live up to our expectations, we need to understand that they should not do this. You just need to see a person as he is. I wish to open my eyes, see the diversity of this world and accept it.

Yana Krainova now

In March 2020, the NTV channel launched the crime series “Firing Line” about the work of fire department employees, in which Yana played one of the roles.

The actress also starred in Ilya Kazakov’s series “Potapov and Lyusya” (with Mikhail Porechenkov and Ekaterina Olkina) and the comedy series “Flying Crew” with Alexei Chadov, Natalya Bardo and Yulia Topolnitskaya.

Yana Krainova in the series “Potapov and Lyusya”