July 9: Russian actress and singer Zhanna Friske - AKA - Jeanna Friske - is 39-years-old today.

-----

Jeanna Vladimirovna Friske (Russian: Жанна Владимировна Фриске) - better known under her stage name Zhanna and Jeanna Friske -was born 8 July 1974 in the former Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in the Soviet Union. Her family lives today in Moscow.

Zhanna graduated in 1991 from secondary school No. 406, Perovo District, Moscow, where she participated in amateur art activities. She was fond of ballet and rhythmic gymnastics since her childhood. She studied journalism at Moscow University, but abandoned it.

Zhanna first became famous when she joined the all-girl pop singing group Blestyashchie (The Shining Ones) in 1996.  Her younger sister Natalia participated in Blestyashchiye for some time as well. Zhanna left the group in 2003 to start a soilo singing career, and to take part in the reality show The last hero-4. She also started acting.

In her solo singing career, her most successful single is "Я была / Ya byla / I Was," which reached the top of the Russian charts. Her self-named album was also a major success reaching the top of all Russian-speaking countries.
In 1996 she started her creative career by joining the singing group Blestyashchiye

In 2005 Zhanna participated  in the reality show The Last hero-5. Afterwards she took part in such projects as The Heart of Africa, The Empire, The circus starring, The Circus. In 2008 she skated with Vitaly Novikov and Maxim Marinin in the Ice Age 2 project.

On 4 October 2005 her first solo album was released under the name of Jeanna. Some of the songs have been released as music videos: «Лечу в темноту» (Lechu v temnotu, "I am flying into the darkness"), «La–la-la», «Где-то летом» (Gde-to letom, "Somewhere in summer").

In 2004, she acted in the movie Night Watch as Alisa Donnikova.  Although most of her scenes were cut, she had a more prominent role in the sequel Day Watch, and appeared on its posters.  She is scheduled to appear in the last installment of the trilogy, Final Watch.

In 2010, Zhanna played herself in the film What about the men are speaking of. She also played a major part in the detective story Who am I? released that same year. Jeanna Friske has been photographed for glamour magazines including Penthouse, Maxim and Elle.

 

-----

For more about Zhanna/Jeanne, visit her Website at –

http://www.jeannefriske.com/en/

####