Andrey Terentyev

Andrey Terentyev was born on 14 July 1982 in Neustrelitz, then in the German Democratic Republic, where his parents were stationed. His mother served at a military unit and his father worked for the Interior Ministry. When Andrey was small his father was killed while on duty, and his mother moved with Andrey and his elder brother to Smolensk.

He caught the theatre bug at school, acting with the Smolensk theatre studio Dialog. After leaving school he set out to become a professional actor and, at his third attempt, won a place at the Saint Petersburg State Academy of Theatre Arts. He studied on the course led by Veniamin Filshtinsky and graduated in 2006.

After the academy Terentyev worked in Saint Petersburg theatre, appearing with Priyut Komedianta, Osobnyak and Baltic House. He also tried directing, staging Olga Pogodina's play The Clay Pit.

He made his film debut in 2006 in Nenormalnaya. His breakthrough came two years later in Andrei Malyukov's science fiction war film We Are from the Future (2008), in which he played Spirt, one of four young men digging for wartime relics who find themselves transported to the battlefields of 1942. The role remained the one most viewers associated with him.

He went on to appear in more than 50 film and television productions, often in detective, crime and war dramas. His credits included Leningrad 46, Vysokiye Stavki, Goryunov, Takaya Rabota, Realizatsiya, Podsudimy, Krylya Imperii, Pervy Otdel, Igra s Ognyom, Prezumptsiya Nevinovnosti and Filin, several of them made by Triix Media. In the 2021 drama Solntsepyok he played Evgeny. One of his final screen appearances was in the 2026 war drama 10 Stories of Love and Death.

Terentyev was married to Svetlana Terentyeva, who, according to Russian press reports, had also attended the Dialog studio and graduated from the Saint Petersburg theatre academy. They had a son. At the farewell ceremony his son said that Terentyev had become a grandfather shortly before he died, and that the baby had been named Igor after his great-grandfather. Friends remembered him for his responsiveness, charm and sharp mind, and for his openness to new roles and to directing.

Andrey Terentyev died in the night of 19 to 20 October 2026, aged 44. His death was made public on 22 October by Triix Media, which posted its condolences on VKontakte. His family first told RIA Novosti that a flare-up of a stomach ulcer was to blame; his widow Svetlana later told TASS that he had died of blood loss from internal bleeding caused by a perforated ulcer.

A farewell ceremony was held on 23 October 2026 at a funeral hall on Partizanskaya Street in Saint Petersburg. About 50 relatives, friends and colleagues attended, and Veniamin Filshtinsky, head of acting and directing at the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts, spoke about his former student. In keeping with theatre tradition he was seen off with prolonged applause. His body was taken to Tatarstan and he was buried on 24 October 2026 near Kazan, in the village of Rozhdestveno.

For a generation of Russian viewers Terentyev remained Spirt, the brash young treasure hunter of We Are from the Future, a film that became a popular reference point for war stories told to younger audiences. Beyond that role he was a dependable presence in Russian television drama for almost twenty years, with more than 50 screen credits, and a stage actor and director trained in Filshtinsky's Saint Petersburg school.