Askold Zapashnyy

Actor · b. 1977 · Kharkov, Ukrainian SSR, USSR

Russian circus artist, representative of the circus dynasty Zapashny in the fourth generation. People's Artist of the Russian Federation (2012). Artistic Director of the Big Moscow Circus (since 2012). Acting artist in the genre of training predatory animals, a juggler, a voltigeur, a tightrope walker, a juggler on a Segway, an acrobat on skates. For the first time he entered a cage with tigers at the age of ten. In 1991, when Askold graduated from high school, the family received a lucrative offer to perform in China. The contract made it possible to save animals. Especially for Zapashny, the Chinese side built a large summer circus in Safari Park, near the city of Shenzhen. To emphasize the foreign origin for the Chinese, Edgard and Askold began to be repainted in blondes. Together with his brother Edgard Zapashny he went on tour in China, Monaco, Italy, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Japan, Hungary, Bulgaria, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. In 1998, at the celebration of his anniversary, the People's Artist of Russia Walter Zapashny gave his sons the attraction “Among the Predators”. Since September 2018 - Professor at the Department of Circus Directing, RATI.