Tigran Edmondovich Keosayan (Armenian: Տիգրան էդմոնդի Քեոսայան, Russian: Тигран Эдмондович Кеосаян; born 4 January 1966) is a Russian film director, actor and television presenter of Armenian origin. He is a winner of film festival prizes including TEFI, Kinotavr and Window to Europe Film Festival [ru] 2001.[1]
Keosayan was included in the list of Russians under personal sanctions by the United Kingdom in March 2022.[10]
On 24 June 2022, Kazakhstan reported that Keosayan was denied entry. On 10 October, Armenian authorities declarated Keosayan and his wife Margarita Simonyanpersona non grata as a "agents from different countries with Armenian surnames" who allow themselves a disrespectful attitude towards Armenia.[11]
Controversy
Blackface segment about Barack Obama
On 30 November 2020, Keosayan's TV show "International Sawmill", for which Keosayan and his wife Margarita Simonyan are co-writers, aired a segment featuring Keosayan, and an actress in blackface posing as former United States President Barack Obama. In the segment, Keosayan, referring to Obama's book A Promised Land, asks the actress: "Do you consider this book your achievement?", to which the actress in blackface replies: "Of course."[12]
Keosayan then asks: "Because none of your relatives have written books?", after which the actress answers: "Because none of my relatives that came before me could write." Keosayan then states "you should have a rap musician, not the president". In the segment, the actress wears a bandana and gold chains and behaves in a way regarded as stereotypical to rappers.[13] The segment was widely deemed as being racist.[14][15]
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