Nik Xhelilaj

Kreshnik Xhelilaj (born 5 March 1983)[1] known professionally as Nik Xhelilaj, is an Albanian actor.

Nik Xhelilaj
Born
Kreshnik Xhelilaj

(1983-03-05) 5 March 1983
Tirana, Albania
Other namesNik Xhelilaj
OccupationActor
Years active2005–present

He began his international career with the movie The Sorrow of Mrs. Schneider, directed by Piro Milkani and Eno Milkani and was the leading actor in three critically acclaimed Albanian films, of which two entered in the List of Albanian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2008 and 2009. Nik has collected several "Best Actor" Awards in various international film festivals.[2]

Biography

Nik Xhelilaj was born in Tirana, on 5 March 1985[3] in a family originally from south Albania, his father was born in Vlorë and his mother was born in Tepelenë.[4] Both of his parents are high military officers by profession.[4] Thus, at the age of 14, also thanks to his father's interest, he went to Istanbul to follow the military high-school. But his new path did not last more than 7 months and he decided to give up on the pursuit of the military career and to come back to Albania.[4] Eventually he engaged with other young artists into the "Sirea Film" projects, with movie directors Leonard Bombaj and Alfred Trebicka, who advised him to compete and sign up for the Fine Arts Academy. Firstly Nik was a candidate for the Faculty of Law, where he did not win.[4]

Then, in 2004, at the age of 21, he entered the Fine Arts Academy for acting. In 2005, after just having finished his freshman year, Nik was chosen by the experienced movie director Pirro Milkani to play the leading role of Lekë Seriani in the film The Sorrow of Mrs. Schneider (Albanian: Trishtimi i zonjës Shnajder), which had strong autobiographical elements. The plot itself dealt in general with the life of director Milkani in the 1960s, during his studies in then-Czechoslovakia.[5] Even though he didn't know the Czech language at all, the young actor memorized and learned to pronounce his Czech lines for the entire film. Nik appeared nude in shower scene in this film. Also it was here that he became widely known with his stage name or nickname Nik, since the producers of the film found it hard to pronounce the Albanian name Kreshnik and thus suggested a shorter version of it.[4] The movie was released in 2008 and was the Albanian submission of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for that year, but failed to be nominated.

Dancing with the Stars

Xhelilaj was part of the first season of the reality show Dancing with the Stars (Albania), that was held between 18 February and 7 May 2010. The couple of the actor and the professional dancer Olta Ahmetaj was the fifth to be eliminated from the competition (out of 12 couples) and thus resigning from the first prize of €50,000.[6]

Filmography

Title Type Year Role
One use Only short length film 2005
The Sorrow of Mrs. Schneider film 2008 Lekë Seriani
Alive! film 2009 Koli
The Albanian film 2010 Arben
Lost City Turkish TV series 2012 Kadir
Real Playing Game film 2013 Young Boris
Every love is a goodbye Turkish TV series 2014 Yusuf
Seven Lucky Gods film 2014 Mehmet
Winnetou German TV film 2016 Winnetou
Zer Turkish film 2017 Jan
Payitaht: Abdülhamid Turkish TV series 2017 Marco
Direniş Karatay Turkish film 2018 Börke
Nefes Nefese Turkish TV series 2018 Boran
The Great Seljuks: Guardians of Justice Turkish TV series 2020 Yorgos
We Children from Bahnhof Zoo German TV series 2021 Dijan
Rise of Empires: Ottoman Netflix docu-drama series 2022 Mahmud Pasha

Theatre

References

  1. Nik Xhelilaj on E-talenta
  2. Gazeta Albania - Filmi "Shqiptari" pushton Festivalin e Gjenevës (in Albanian) | 9 November 2010
  3. Nik Xhelilaj Fan Page
  4. PANORAMAPLUS - Kreshnik apo Nik Xhelilaj? (in Albanian) | 6 October 2009
  5. "Perfundon nje film, nis nje karriere (in Albanian)". Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 21 January 2011.
  6. Nik Xhelilaj nga "Dancing with the Stars", 30 March 2010
  7. Nik Xhelilaj biography, Career timeline Archived 3 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine
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