OLGA KALASHNIKOVA 

Olga Kalashnikova was born in Belarus, to a Ukrainian-born mother Liudmila, and a Belarusian-born father Aliaksandr, and is fluent in Russian. Her mother is a former college professor of ethics, esthetics and the Russian language, who instilled in Olga a taste for arts, fashion and European sophistication. Olga’s father was an electronics engineer and a computer scientist who wore Levi’s jeans, owned a collection of The Beatles' records, and passed his sense of humor on to Olga. During her years in Belarus, Olga studied arts and languages. She started studying English at the age of six. When she was nine, she was among the first children from Belarus to go abroad and spend a year living with a host family in Ireland. That’s where she was first introduced to theater. She recalls with laughter that her first lines, "From Prince? Ahhh! Give it to me!" were delivered in an Irish accent at the school's Cinderella production. But it wasn’t until Olga won a merit-based scholarship to attend Minsk State Linguistic University that she tried her performing skills on stage again. In college, Olga joined the "KVN" comedy club and became a comedy show host for two years. Her self-made character was a sexy-geeky student of linguistics, and her seductive manner of delivering jokes was infamously copied throughout college. 

 

When Olga moved to the States to continue her education, she was finally able to pursue her acting and modeling career professionally. She graduated with a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley, where she also studied improvisation and theater for social change. At Berkeley, she was scouted by a Cal alumni director of photography and landed her first Ford Mustang commercial. In 2011, she moved to Honolulu, Hawai'i, and enrolled at the renowned Scott Rogers Studios to study acting. Her first scene partner was Dennis Chun (Sgt. Duke Lukela on Hawaii Five-0) who inspired her to pursue acting further. Olga landed a leading role in "Angel by Thursday," an independent drama filmed in Hawai’i. Olga played an American-German young attorney Julia Dennis who came to Hawai’i in search of her long-lost mother... and, possibly, love. Since then, Olga worked on national and international commercials for clients including Disney, FUJI, Michelob ULTRA, and in multiple short films. In 2014, Olga wrote, co-produced and acted in a comedic PSA “Voting is HOT!” encouraging the youth of Hawai’i to register to vote, which was acknowledged by Washington D.C.’s “Rock The Vote."

 

Together with Australian-American co-stars Theo Coumbis (Lost, Hawaii Five-0) and Ken Matepi (Aloha, Hawaii Five-0), Olga co-produced and acted in "Anton Chekhov’s The Proposal," a short film adaptation of a comedic play by the world-famous 19th century Russian storywriter and playwright Anton Chekhov. Her character Natalia is a charming but opinionated landowner who is dying to get married. Olga and the team take particular pride in this production, which they tirelessly worked on for over two years: first, the theatrical production of the play, and then the film adaptation — from the translation and screenplay stages, to developing a unique acting style and building a period set in Hawai’i.

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Olga’s hard work continued to pay off when she booked a principal role opposite Zac Efron (High School Musical, Neighbors) and Adam DeVine (Workaholics, Pitch Perfect) in "Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates", Hollywood's comedy filmed in Hawai'i, and a sweet Co-Star role on "Hawaii Five-0" (CBS-TV, Season 7). To top it all, "In the Name Of...", a short film Olga produced and acted in, won a Silver Remi award at the WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival and Best Short/Thriller award at the Hollywood International Moving Pictures Film Festival in Los Angeles. 

 

Most of the time Olga lives with her husband Dzmitry and their daughter Veronica in Hawaii, and frequently travels to Los Angeles and New York for acting and producing work.