Yulia Peresild

Yulia Sergeevna Peresild (Russian: Юлия Сергеевна Пересильд, romanized: Yuliya Sergeyevna Peresil'd; born 5 September 1984) is a Russian stage actress, singer, and cosmonaut.

Leading actress of the Malaya Bronnaya Theatre. Participant of a space flight within the framework of the scientific and educational project The Challenge: The First in Space, during which she participated in the filming of episodes of the 2023 feature film The Challenge. During her spaceflight to the ISS in October 2021 she became the first professional actress to act in outer space. She became the fifth woman in the history of the Soviet Union and Russia to travel into space, and the second to work and live on the ISS.

Peresild was born in Pskov, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union. Her father was an icon painter and her mother was a kindergarten worker. Her surname comes from her Estonian paternal great-grandparents, who were deported to the Russian SFSR. In 2001 she graduated from secondary school No. 24 in the city of Pskov. After school, she entered the Faculty of Russian Philology of the Pskov State Pedagogical Institute, but after studying for only one year, she went to Moscow and entered a theater university.

In 2006, she graduated from the acting department of the directing department of the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts.

Since 2007, as a guest actress, she began to participate in the performances of the State Theatre of Nations.

Collaborates with the Moscow Theater "School of the Modern Play", the Malaya Bronnaya Theatre in Moscow, as well as with the Theater Company of Yevgeny Mironov.

Her acting debut was the role of Natasha Kublakova in the 2003 television series Land [ru], directed by Aleksandr Baranov.

Her first big work in film was the role of Olya Rodyashina in the drama film The Bride (2006) directed by Elyor Ishmukhamedov, and Captive (2008) directed by Alexei Uchitel.