Born in St. Petersburg, Russia on April 21st 1988, Nikolai Dmitriovich Kalashnikov was a welcomed, albeit unexpected, addition to the somewhat cozy little family that Dmitri and his wife Katarina began a years before. With an older brother and sister already at home, Nikolai was a surprise that showed up nearly eight years after his sister's birth and eleven years after his brother's. Being the baby of the family was of course filled with its ups and downs, as should be expected in any family, but overall his relationships developed fairly well with his parents and with his siblings also. At times. Dmitri accused his wife of coddling her youngest child, but mostly these accusations were all in jest. Of course there could have been the smallest grain of truth in what he said as well.

The idea of a "mama's boy" certainly fit Nikolai, whom his family affectionately called Nikki. He loved his mother very dearly as a young child and still does to this day, marking her among the members of his family that he would do anything for if asked. From a very early age, Nikolai had issues with both his older brother, Viktor, and his father. He was certainly different from them in many ways. More sensitive, creative, and intuitive that they thought anyone destined to be a "man" should be. With his mother and older sister to protect him, these statements rarely reached the young boy's ears and for that he will always be thankful. He's pondered that, should he have heard his father's disappointment so young, he might not be where he is today.

Nikolai's older sister, Ivanka, had been taking ballet lessons since she was 4 years old. At age 16 she began dancing with one of the more reputable non-touring ballet companies in Russia. On the occasion that the local symphony should perform an opera that included a ballet, Ivanka was quick to mention her younger brother as perhaps a member of the child's chorus. Nikolai had shown an interest in the stage early on, often attempting to mimic his sister's dancing after recitals. He'd started taking ballet when he was 5 years old, only adding to his father and brother's early suspicions that he would grow up to be overtly effeminate. These early performances as part of a children's chorus in operas led Nikolai to continue his pursuit of the stage. He was hooked early on by the lights and the music and, of course, the rush of being on stage.

An unexpected move when Nikolai was 10, which was attached to a new business opportunity for Dmitri and Viktor took the family away from cold, snowy Russia to the damp, grey skies of England. Nikolai's mother knew all too well that being in England would open new doorways for the entire family, and against her husband's wishes, she continued to nurture her young son's love for plays, operas, and musicals. She took him to see The Phantom of the Opera on the West End where the sights and sounds, the story, and everything about the experience stuck within the child's mind. It became his favorite musical, despite being the first he'd ever seen, and has remained so ever since. As soon as the final bow was taken and the stage cleared, Nikolai distinctly remembers turning to his mother and saying, "Someday when I grow up I'm going to live in America and play the Phantom on broadway in New York." Katarina only smiled; she never doubted him for a moment.

It was only about a year after moving to England that the business Dmitri and Viktor had worked so hard to establish went bust. With no funding, and no family in England, the talk began to swirl throughout the family of moving back to Russia. Nothing could have displeased Nikolai more; he finally felt as though he were moving up in the world. When Dmitri heard his youngest son say this, he came unglued. It was the first time that the now 11 year old Nikolai had ever heard his father dismiss his passion for the stage as a waste of time and describe how "unmanly" of a dream it was to have. Bursting into hurt and angry tears, Nikolai ran to the bedroom he shared with Viktor and slammed the door. He drifted off at some point and awoke the next day to his sister and mother packing boxes. He assumed the decision to go back to Russia had been finalized, but he was mistaken.

As it turned out, that same night, Dmitri called his older brother for some advice. Nikolai's uncle, after having left Russia more than a decade earlier, was now living in New York with his wife and children for some advice. After a lengthy conversation, Dmitri's brother convinced him to bring Katarina and the children along to the states to live with his family for a while until they got on their feet. Reluctantly, he agreed and the packing and preparations began. Nikolai was elated when he heard the news that he'd be moving one step closer to his dream of the Broadway stage, but he kept these feelings hidden due to the explosive reaction his father had the previous night when he'd heard his son say that leaving Russia was a step up. To mention such an anti-patriotic notion in his house felt like a slap to the face to Dmitri; one that Nikolai just didn't understand. Though both of Nikolai's older siblings were around to help pack things up to the move to the U.S., neither of them would be going along with Nikolai and his parents.

Viktor met a girl while they were in London and had decided to stay behind to be with her. Ivanka deicded to go back to Russia after a friend phoned to tell her that the world renowned Russian ballet was auditioning new ballerinas; it was her lifelong dream and she certainly couldn't pass it up after training for years. A month after her return to Russia she called her family to tell them she'd been accepted and would see them when the ballet toured to America. Despite whatever his siblings were doing with their lives, upon arriving in New York the adults were talking business and living arrangements while Nikolai made quick work of attempting to get to know the cousin he'd never met whom he'd be sharing a bedroom with for the time being. Anastasia, or Anya as the family called her, was just a few months younger than he was and, to his surprise, they got on together quite well. It felt nice to finally have a friend that didn't mock him for his more dramatic side.

Anya never once thought it weird of her cousin, whom she started calling Nik after he explained how much he hated being called Nikki, to break out into song and dance. In fact, she often joined in his extensive games of make believe and within this new friendship he began to feel more and more comfortable. Luckily for Nik, starting middle school wasn't particularly difficult as far as language went. After living in England for a year, he'd picked up on the language with a higher proficiency than either of his siblings or parents. Watching and listening to soundtracks of American and English musical productions certainly helped him as well. The hardest part for him came in the treatment he received from the other children his age, specifically the boys. While his first year wasn't so bad, because he was mostly trying to adjust to his surroundings, his seventh and eighth grade years felt like constant torment. He auditioned for every play or musical he could, and got some part in almost all of them. Though these of course weren't always the leads, Nikolai could've cared less. All he wanted was to perform on stage, leading roles were simply a perk.

High school brought about more than simple name calling. He was beaten and bullied more and more often it seemed, not to mention the number of times he'd been called slurs both racial and in regard to his supposed sexuality. On the rare occasion that he did show interest in a female classmate, other students would pass it off as a scandalous cover up marking him as a "closet case." Things had gotten so bad in fact that his parents had to take him out of the school he attended with Anya after his freshman year. For the remainder of his high school years, Nikolai attended LaGuardia performing arts high school. He loved the school as well as the people in it and truly began to flourish under the guidance that was offered by the instructors. He made friends and even met his first girlfriend, Kimber. Despite prospering in the drama department as a favorite of his teachers, Nik tried to push all of that from his mind as graduation grew closer. Even more focus went into preparing for his fast approaching audition for Juilliard where he hoped to attend college. It was possibly one of the first times that he'd ever been petrified to set foot on a stage, but at that point he felt as though everything he'd done before was leading up to that moment.

The Juilliad audition came and went much faster than he would have liked, but he felt good about it. He graduated with honors from LaGuardia high, but became worried with each passing day having not heard back yet from Juilliard. It was the only school he'd applied to, against the advice of his family, friends, and teachers. He wasn't sure what he would do if he didn't get in, but all of the worried waiting paid off when he finally received his acceptance letter. Nikolai received a full scholarship to study at the Juillard school making him the first of his immediate family to have attended a university. Which is why it outraged his father even more when Nikolai dropped out during his junior year. He'd been Juilliard's own rising star, taking on leading or supporting roles in nearly all of their productions, but the draw of the Broadway stage was too alluring to resist when he'd caught wind of an upcoming open audition for a revival of the play Equus.

Nikolai attended the audition not believing that he'd even get a call back, but to his astonishment he did. He received a second call back as well and, after the casting director's original choice backed out of the role to take a part in a film, Nikolai was offered the role of Alan Strang. Of course, it wasn't a Broadway musical, but it was a paying job and it was on Broadway. Any foot in the door was good enough for him. The run of Equus was a success and, due to the nude scene, generated quite a bit of press. After the show closed, Nikolai attempted to get work again on Broadway, but was met without any luck. Feeling somewhat defeated, he used the money he'd made off of Equus as well as what he made working as a waitor part-time to finish his degree and graduated from the Juilliard school in 2010.

The last few months of his schooling at Juilliard was interwoven with rehearsals for an off Broadway production adapted from Green Day's American Idiot album. He took on the role as the main protagonist, "Johnny" and loved every moment of the experience. From that moment on, things slowly but surely began to snowball for Nikolai Kalashnikov. His name cropped up around the inner workings of the theatre community for roles, but his "big break" didn't come until he returned to the Broadway stage in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in 2011 as "J. Pierrepont Finch." Since that explosive revival of the famed 1960s musical, Nik has been called "Broadway's Rising Star" and "the one to watch" by more than a few dramatic publications. Nikolai wasn't sure that things could possibly get any better and he was happier than he'd ever been, but things sometimes get better and sometimes dreams come true.

After his final performance for How to Succeed... in January 2012, Nikolai was approached to take over the role of the Phantom in none other than The Phantom of the Opera beginning in the summer of 2012. He, of course, jumped at the chance and thanks his lucky stars, his mother and sister, for their constant support and encouragement. Without which, he is more than certain, he would not have had the heart to pursue his dreams. For Broadway's new rising star, the only place left to go is up.

Nikolai has always been the type to suffer from tunnel vision. Once he gets his head set to doing something there's very little that can stop him from achieving his goals. Admittedly, being this headstrong has caused problems for him within his familial relationships as well as those with his friends and even more so with romantic relationships. However, the fact of the matter is that he honestly believes that had he been more flexible with his goals he wouldn't have made it this far at such a young age. He hopes that those who genuinely love and care about him can see through to the core of what he's done and most of them seem to. As for those who believe he's a self-centered prick and nothing more, well, Nik's always been a give them what they want sort of guy. If they want to see him as an asshole, then he's more than happy to oblige. He dislikes physical confrontation and will avoid it at all costs; he's no dummy and fully understands that his fighting skills leave something to be desired. For the most part, he's just a very career-driven young man that has obtained what he believes to be the pinnacle of his life's dreams. Yet, as it is with most people, sometimes it's impossible to conceive of the idea that that there are, in fact, some things out there in the world that just might be better than what we've always dreamed of.
Relationships, particularly romantic ones, have never been one of Nikolai Kalashnikov's strong suits. It's not for a lack of being interested in one or searching for that perfect woman, but instead he finds it nearly impossible to keep a woman happy in a serious relationship without feeling forced to sacrifice some portion of his blossoming career on Broadway. He's been told in the past that it all boils down to time management, but he's never found that advice especially helpful. To date, Nikolai has never been in what he would consider and serious and involved adult relationship. He's had plenty of short-lived romances over the years since he started attending school at Juilliard up to the present. Many of these were with co-stars, a few ballet dancers, one Romanian gymnast, and a handful of models. These relationships turn sour long before they could be considered serious and though there were a few times when the break-ups weren't directly related to something he had or hadn't done, most of the time it boils down to the fact that he's more in love with his career and the stage than he has ever been with one of the lovely females he chooses to keep by his side.

1. The Phantom of the Opera as "The Phantom" (June 2012 - ????)
2. How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying as "J. Pierrepont Finch" (February 2011 - January 2012)
3. Equus as "Alan Strang" (September 2008 - Frebruary 2009)

1. Russian Transport as "Alex" (January 2012 - March 2012)
2. American Idiot as "Johnny" (March 2010 - January 2011)

1. Burn This as "Pale" (November 2007)
2. The Misanthrope as "Acaste" (October 2007)
3. Hamlet as "Hamlet" (September 2006)

1. Bye Bye Birdie as "Albert F. Peterson"
2. Romeo & Juliet as "Romeo"
3. Peter Pan as "John Darling"
4. Peter and the Wolf as "Peter"
5. Carmen as "chorus member"
6. La Boheme as "orphan boy"

PLAYED BY: Jeremy Irvine
PREMADE: the rising star
AIM & JOURNAL: ??? & ~kalashnik
WRITING STYLE: third person storybook, threads preferred, but IC chatter on AIM is fine
TIMEZONE: CST