Uralskie Pelmeni (Уральские пельмены; “pelmeni from the Urals”) is a Russian sketch comedy group originally from Ekaterinburg. They started out as a KVN team in 1993, winning the Highest League (Высшая лига) of KVN in 2000. As a result of their KVN popularity, they were able to start their own sketch comedy show in 2009, also called Uralskie Pelmeni.
The team performed on KVN in various leagues between 1993 and 2000, and then began participating on some KVN spinoffs, particularly the musical festival “Voicing KiViN” (Голосящий КиВиН) in Yurmala, Latvia. They produced a show for REN TV (РЕН ТВ) on the occasion of their 16th anniversary as a team in 2009, and that same year started their own show, which airs on STS (СТС). They also continued to perform in other sketch comedy and talent shows at the same time. Many of the members also write and direct, work in ads, and perform around the country
There are currently 12 full members of the team, including team captain Andrey Rozhkov (Андрей Рожков), founder Dmitriy Sokolov (Дмитрий Соколов), and vice captain Dmitriy Brekotkin (Дмитрий Брекоткин). The team members both act in and write the sketches.
The show is both popular and officially highly rated; the Academy of Russian Television (Академия российского телевидения) awarded the TEFI–Commonwealth (ТЭФИ-Содружество) award. The show is now in its ninth season—seasons have had a very varied number of episodes, anywhere from two to 18, plus additional concerts—and is still going strong. The most recent episodes have all been spoofs of other Russian cultural productions, including the TV show Save Our Souls (Спасите наши души) and the classic story The Dawns Here are Quiet (А зори здесь тихие). There were also a number of special episodes of the show in 2015 and 2016—sort of greatest-hit compilations—in addition to the regular new episodes.
Creator: Sergey Netiyevskiy (Сергей Нетиевский)
Stars: Andrey Rozhkov (Андрей Рожков), Dmitriy Sokolov (Дмитрий Соколов ), Dmitriy Brekotkin (Дмитрий Брекоткин), Vyacheslav Myasnikov (Вячеслав Мясников), Sergey Isaev (Сергей Исаев), Maksim Yaritsa (Максим Ярица), Aleksandr Popov (Александр Попов), Yuliya Mikhalkova-Matyukhina (Юлия Михалкова-Матюхина), Sergey Yershov (Сергей Ершов), Sergey Kalugin (Сергей Калугин), Ilana Isakzhanova (Илана Исакжанова), Kseniya Korneva (Ксения Корнева)
TV channel: STS (СТС)
The show’s official website.
A recent episode of Uralskie Pelmeni, 2016:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNpaAIBVAKA
