Andrei Malaev-Babel is the Head of Acting at the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training. He is widely recognized as the foremost authority on the Demidov School of Acting and serves as the Head and Certifying Master Teacher of the International Demidov Association, which he established. In this role, he leads internationally recognized Demidov Teacher Certification and Acting Certificate programs.
Professor Malaev-Babel is also a founding faculty member of MICHA, the Michael Chekhov Association in New York City. He serves on the advisory board of the Stanislavsky Research Centre (UK) and the International Scientific Committee of Arti dello Spettacolo – Performing Arts (Italy). In recognition of his contribution to theatre education, he was awarded a Fulbright Specialist Award by the U.S. Department of State.
His directing work has been presented at The Kennedy Center and The National Theater in Washington, D.C., where he also served on the faculty of The Catholic University of America. As Producing Artistic Director of the Stanislavsky Theatre Studio (STS), an award-winning company and school in Washington, D.C., he was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award as Outstanding Director.
He is the author of numerous publications on Russian theatre and actor training, including The Vakhtangov Sourcebookand Yevgeny Vakhtangov: A Critical Portrait. In 2016, he co-edited and translated (with Margarita Laskina) the first English-language collection of Nikolai Demidov’s writings, Becoming an Actor-Creator (Routledge).
In demand internationally, Professor Malaev-Babel has presented, taught, and performed at institutions including Stanford University; the Smithsonian Institution; the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts (St. Petersburg); the Odessa Philharmonic; Rose Bruford College; the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art; the Young Vic Theatre (UK); the University of Rome; Teatro Escola Macunaíma (Brazil); the Polish National Institute of Film, Television and Theater; and the Shanghai Theatre Academy.
He co-wrote and starred in the internationally acclaimed documentary Finding Babel, dedicated to the life and work of Russian-Jewish author Isaac Babel. The film premiered at festivals across the U.S., Europe, and Israel, and won the Grand Jury Prize at the Moscow International Jewish Film Festival. His one-man show, Babel: How It Was Done in Odessa, has been presented internationally, including at a United Nations event in Moscow.
A graduate of the Vakhtangov Theater Institute in Moscow, he studied under Alexandra Remizova—co-founder of the Vakhtangov Theater and protégé of both Stanislavsky and Vakhtangov. In 1985, he co-founded the Moscow Chamber Forms Theater, one of the first private professional companies to emerge in Russia during Perestroika.