Chyra, Andrzej

Actor, director, graduate of the Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw. He made his acting debut as a student in Love’s Labour’s Lost (dir. Tadeusz Łomnicki). His debut as director was The History of Alcoholism in Poland in 1994. Between 2000 and 2007 he worked at the Rozmaitości Theatre in Warsaw, and is currently a member of the stage company of the Nowy Theatre in Warsaw. He is a popular film actor, having made his debut in Radosław Piwowarski’s Sequence of Feelings in 1993. He won public and critical acclaim with the role in Gerard Nowak in Krzysztof Krauze’s The Debt (1999) and Feliks Falk’s The Collector (2005), and further popularity with his creations in Kallafiorr, Squint Your Eyes, We’re All Christs, All That I Love, Katyń, and In The Name Of. Chyra has also appeared in numerous foreign film productions, coauthored film scripts and codirected films.

In 2012 he staged Dmitri Shostakovich / Krzysztof Meyer’s The Gamblers at the Baltic Opera in Gdańsk, to great critical acclaim. His accolades include the Eagle Polish Film Award (2000, 2006), three awards for leading male role at the Gdynia Film Festival (1999, 2005, 2013), Golden Duck (2006), Minister of Culture and National Heritage Award for theatre (2011), and Konrad Swinarski Award (2015) for best director of the 2014/15 artistic season, for directing Paweł Mykietyn’s opera The Magic Mountain.