He graduated from Moscow Art Theatre and made his cinema debut in Noktyurn dlya barabana i mototsikla (1994). Since 1994 he has played a wide range of characters, such as Ivan Brilling in Azazel (2002), Irakliy in The Irony of Fate 2 (2007), Kappel in Admiral (2008), Sumarokov in High Security Vacation (2009), and Rzhevskiy in 1812. Ulanskaya ballada (2012). His notable roles in Russian miniseries include starring as Sasha Belov in Law of the Lawless (2002), Yeshua Ha-Nozri in Master i Margarita (2005), Sergei Esenin in Esenin (2005) and Vladimir Vysotsky in Vysotsky. Thank You for Being Alive (2011). He voiced the title character of Prince Vladimir animated film and several characters in the Kukly series. He is also known for his theatre role of Chichikov in Dead Souls (which won the Moskovskij Komsomolets' award). In 2006, he portrayed Alexander Pushkin, revered as the Russian language's greatest poet, in Pushkin: The Last Duel. According to the survey of ROMIR Monitoring, in Russia he was called the favourite actor of 2005.