Nik Xhelilaj

Kreshnik Xhelilaj , better known by his stage name Nik Xhelilaj, is an Albanian film and stage actor. He began his international career with the movie The Sadness of Mrs. Snajdrova, directed by Pirro Milkani and was the leading actor in three critically acclaimed Albanian films of the last few years, 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.

Nik Xhelilaj was born in Tirana, onMarch 1983, in a family originally from south Albania, his father was born in Vlore and his mother was born in Tepelena. Both of his parents are high military officers by profession. Thus, at the age of 14, also thanks to his fathers interest, he went to Istanbul to follow the military highschool. But his new path did not last more thanmonths and he decided to give up on the pursue of the military career and come back to Albania. Eventually he engaged with other young artist 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.

Source: Wikipedia