Anthony Nikolchev grew up in California’s Bay Area, cut his teeth in Central Europe, and holds a dual degree in theater and something like bioethics from Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He's an actor, writer, director for theater, film and experiential movement performance, currently on the director roster of HeLo Productions. He spent his first professional year on Chicago stages (XIII Pocket, Lookingglass) and produced his first one-man show, “Look, What I Don’t Understand,” directed by his lifelong mentor, Yuri Kordonsky. A cold January run in Chicago and an international tour of “Look...” through the post-communist countries of Russia, Armenia, and Poland left him with no return ticket, living and working amongst the ghosts of European theatre, based in Wroclaw, Poland. He later was a founding member of the Studio Matejka, training and performing for three years at the Grotowski Institute, while suffering a transatlantic career split in Los Angeles. He has since founded the movement art performance company, Galiana&Nikolchev’s The Useless Room, with Gema Galiana.
Select work has been presented at The Critic’s Week during The Venice Film Biennale, Cannes Creative Lions, San Diego Opera, REDCAT, The Theatre Olympics, the SOLO Festival (Moscow), Oval House (London), Summerhall (Edinburgh) as well as the United SOLO Festival in NYC, where he was awarded back-to-back awards for Best Actor. He is a recipient of a Mid-Atlantic Artists International Grant and a TCG/ITI Travel Grant, and has been commissioned by The Skirball Center’s Noah’s Ark and Dance City UK for creations of new physical theater performances. He teaches Movement at California Institute of the Arts, and has led physical theater workshops in Spain, Poland, the UK, India, Mexico, and throughout the USA.