Alexander Petrov was born in Pereslavl-Zalesskiy, Russia, a small town. During his school years, he played for the national football team. After leaving school, he entered the University of Pereslavl, Faculty of Economics.
He took part in cultural events, including KVN, Student Council, and a theatre studio under Veronika Ivanenko's direction. At the Theatre Festival in Pohvistnevo, he met teachers from the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts (GITIS) at workshops.
After the Festival, he left the University of Pereslavl and moved to Moscow to become a student of GITIS, the class of Leonid Heifetz in 2008. Since his second year, he began acting in films. His first role was in the TV-show "Voices" directed by Nana Jorjadze, an Oscar nominee in 1997. His first leading role was in the TV-series "Poka tsvetet paporotnik" (directed by Evgeniy Bedarev) in 2012. While studying at GITIS, he starred in 10 films.
Right after graduating from GITIS, he was accepted to the Moscow Theater "Et Cetera" under Alexander Kalyagin's direction. He played Graziano in "Shylock" ("The Merchant of Venice") on the touring stage of Riga Russian Drama Theater. Five months later, he was invited to Ermolova's Moscow Theater run by Oleg Menshikov to rehearse Hamlet directed by Valeriy Sarkisov, premiered in December 2013. "Hamlet" has been the most sold-out performance in the theater ever since.
In the end of 2014, the head of Moscow Pushkin Theater - Evgeniy Pisarev and director Vladimir Mirzoyev offered him a role of Lopakhin in "Cherry Orchard" by Chekhov.
In 2015, he played the lead in Fartsa TV-series - one of the first Russian TV-series ever streamed on Netflix. Also, he played a charming police officer Grisha Izmailov in TV-series "Politseyskiy s Rublyovki v Beskudnikovo" (2017) (directed by Ilya Kulikov) viewed by millions and got him famous nationally.
In November 2016, he created his first one-man dramatic show "TOBEBORNAGAIN" that was always a sold-out show until its closure.
In 2017, he starred in Prityazhenie by Fedor Bondarchuk which had an outstanding success in Russia (box office - more than 18 million USD). The film was released worldwide. Gogol' (2017),where he also played the lead - russian famous writer Nikolay Gogol, became the first TV-series in the world screened in cinemas. It won an award at the festival of the Indie Gathering International Film Festival and was awarded at the Accolade Global Film Competition in the "Award of Excellence" category.
In 2017, he starred in his first international movie - "Anna" - a film by Luc Besson, released in 2019.
During the next few years, he starred in a number of movies that topped the box office in Russia and were released worldwide.
In summer 2020, during the world pandemic, he starred in his second international project "Man of god" filmed in Greece.
Prizes and Awards:
Event of the Year of The Hollywood Reporter Magazine 2015 - Audience Award for Achievements in Film and Television Industry | GQ Magazine Man of the Year Awards 2018 - Actor of the Year | Golden Eagle Awards 2019 (winner) - Best TV Actor - Drama Series ("Sparta") | Event of the Year of The Hollywood Reporter Magazine - Best Actor ("Text") | Golden Eagle Awards 2020 (winner) - Best Actor - Motion Picture ("Text")
