actor, author, parodist, TV presenter.
Biography
He was born on June 5, 1980 in Kotovsk (Odesa region). Already from childhood, he began to show interest in humor. During his school years, he actively participated in artistic activities.
In 1997, he entered the Odesa National Maritime University, where he received two higher educations – majoring in “maritime law” and “maritime transport management”… He had been living in Odesa for a long time, so he considers this city his native city. As a student, he played in KVK. At one time, he worked as a host of the program “News. Odesa. Sport” on one of the Odesa’s TV channels, tried himself as a TV presenter in the Ukrainian version of the program “Brain Ring” on the K1 channel. In 2005, together with Serhiy Tsvilovsky, they founded the humorous duo “Brothers Schumacher”.
In 2009, Studio “Kvartal 95” offered Yurii a job as an author and actor in the duo “Brothers Schumacher”. Due to the «Vecherniy Kvartal», the duo became very popular – not only in Ukraine, but also abroad. That’s why Yurii and a colleague decided on their own project – “The Schumacher Brothers Show”, which lasted for several TV seasons. But already in 2019, Yurii Velykyi returns to the Studio “Kvartal 95” as the author and actor of “Evening Quarter”. Also, Yurii Velykyi participated in such studio projects as “Fight Club”, «Vecherniy Kiev», «Crack Them Up», «Shelter», cartoon movie “Fairytale “, starred in the musical “1+1 Home Alone” and the TV series «Servant Of The People».
The main “trick” of Yurii Velykyi in humor is parodies. His arsenal consists of a huge list of parodies of odious and popular personalities. In particular, Yurii parodies President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, appearing as him in the «Vecherniy Kvartal». Since the beginning of the full-scale war, the main objects of his parodies became the odious personalities of the aggressor country. And it was these parodies that brought Yurii considerable popularity. Videos of his parodies gain millions of views on social networks.
Divorced. Has a daughter, Kateryna.
Favourite movies
- «Dinner with a Weirdo»
- «C’est la vie!»
Favourite books
- Scientific literature on Shipbuilding
Favourite artists/songs
- KOLA
- Adam
- Artem Pivovarov
- Dorofeeva
Charitable activities
Since 2014, he supports our soldiers together with his friends and colleagues from the «Kvartal 95» studio. He raises the fighting spirit of our defenders during the trips near the frontline and performances in military units, hospitals, bomb shelters and shooting ranges. Also, he helps our defenders.
Interesting facts
Yurii has been fond of ship modeling since childhood. Due to his busy schedule, he does not manage to devote time to this hobby often, but there is always a ship waiting for him in the closet, which the actor undertakes to glue when he has a spare moment.
Yura works on creating parodies not only as an actor and author. He himself also thinks through and creates the image of each character – he selects costumes, make-up and wigs. By the way, he has a whole collection of wigs for this, most of which Yura made himself… from the hair of his colleagues. There is even a wig made from the hair of National Artist of Ukraine Stanislav Boklan!
