Merab Ninidze

Tbilisi, Georgia SSR, USSR

Merab Ninidze (born 3 November 1965) is a Georgian actor. He is best known for the roles of Oleg Penkovsky in The Courier, Walter Redlich in Nowhere in Africa, and Giulio Sabbadin in Conclave. Ninidze was born into an artistic family and was introduced to acting at a young age. He was heavily involved in the theatrical world in Georgia. At the age of 13, he successfully auditioned for the role of Prince Edward in Shakespeare's Richard III at the Rustaveli State Academic Theatre in Tbilisi, which premiered in 1979 and toured the UK three times. From 1982 to 1985, he studied at the Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Georgia State Film Institute under the guidance of Gizo Jordania, which eventually led him to become a full-fledged member of the Theatre Company. Later, he would perform in plays such as Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, The Diary of Anne Frank, and David Kldiashvili's Step-Mother. Ninidze's first major film role was in Tengiz Abuladze's 1984 film Repentance, in which he played Tornike Aravidze. At the age of 25, Ninidze immigrated from Georgia following the Civil War in Georgia. During this time, he was offered a role in Goran Rebic's Yugofilm, which led him to work in Vienna for several months. For more than 20 years, Ninidze has worked in Georgian, Russian, German, and English-language film and TV.