Professor Andrei Malaev-Babel is the leading specialist, worldwide, in the Demidov School of Acting. Since 2008, he has been practically recreating the Demidov School at his Florida graduate acting studio, while introducing it to the US, Ukraine, Russia, Europe, UK, Brazil and China. He is the Director, Head of Acting and Professor of Theatre at the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training in Sarasota, Florida. He is a member of the international faculty of the Michael Chekhov Association in New York City (MICHA), and on the advisory board of Stanislavsky Research Centre, UK. Professor Malaev-Babel is also a member of the International Scientific Committee for Arti Dello Spettacolo-Performing Arts (Italy).

He served as the Producing Artistic Director for the Stanislavsky Theatre Studio (STS), an award-winning company and conservatory in Washington, DC. There, he was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award as an Outstanding Director for his production of Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot.

His productions were presented at The Kennedy Center and The National Theater in Washington, DC, where he also appeared as a performer. He has also served on the faculty of The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. Productions directed by Professor Malaev-Babel were presented at international festivals, including Volkov Theatre Festival (Yaroslavl, Russia). His most celebrated productions include Dostoyevsky's Brothers Karamazov, Ibsen's The Lady from the Sea, Anouilh’s Antigone, Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge, Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard (in Moscow at the Stanislavsky House-Museum’s Onegin Hall) and Chekhov's Three Sisters at the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training.

Professor Malaev-Babel is the author of the Guide to the Psychological Gesture Technique, published in Michael Chekhov’s seminal book, To the Actor (Routledge, London and New York, 2003). His groundbreaking volumes on Yevgeny Vakhtangov’s heritage, The Vakhtangov Sourcebook and Yevgeny Vakhtangov: A Critical Portrait, came out from Routledge in 2011 and 2012. He has co-edited and co-translated an English-language collection of Nikolai Demidov’s theatrical heritage, Becoming an Actor-Creator (Routledge, 2016). He most recently published Inside the Nicholai Demidov School of Acting (Russian University of Theatre Arts Press (GITIS), Moscow, 2018). In addition to these book volumes, Professor Malaev-Babel authored book chapters and journal articles on the key figures of Russian theatre.

Professor Malaev-Babel is in demand nationally and internationally. He has been presenting at Stanford University; The Smithsonian Institution; The Odessa Philharmonic (Ukraine); Russian State Institute of Performing Arts (St. Petersburg); Teatro Escola Macunaima (Brazil); Rose Bruford College, The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (UK); University of Rome (Italy), and The Shanghai Theatre Academy (China). Most recently, he has been a recipient of the Fulbright Specialist Award from the US Department of State. As the Head of the Demidov Association, he runs the Demidov Teacher Certification and Acting Certificate Programs.

Andrei Malaev-Babel is a graduate of the Vakhtangov Theater Institute in Moscow, Russia. He trained and worked under Alexandra Remizova, co-founder of the Vakhtangov Theater, Stanislavsky’s student and Vakhtangov’s protégé. During the time of Perestroika, he co-founded the Moscow Chamber Forms Theatre, one of Soviet Union’s first private companies.

Born in Sweden in 1978, Kimon has developed a multifaceted career as an actor, acting teacher, coach, writer, director, and play translator. His journey in the performing arts began as a graduate of the renowned "Art Theater of Athens" (Theatro Technis Karolos Koun). He later deepened his studies through the "Experimental Stage program for actors and directors" at the National Theater of Greece, working with GITIS-trained teachers, and ultimately graduating as an actor from the Demidov School of Theatre under the mentorship of Professor Andrei Malaev-Babel—a philosophy to which he has now dedicated his work.

With over 20 years of experience, Kimon has collaborated with Greece's leading directors in theater and television, and has worked with renowned filmmakers in film and commercials such as Panos Koronis, Neritan Zinxhiria, Vardis Marinakis, Yiorgos Lanthimos and Christos Nikou.

His teaching practice reflects the evolution of his artistic focus. While he initially embraced and continues to support versatile techniques such as Meisner, Michael Chekhov, and the M.Katselas method—becoming a certified Meisner teacher under Larry Silverberg and teaching the Katselas technique under Sofia Papadopoulos—his primary commitment is now to the Demidov School philosophy.

Between 2008 and 2018, Kimon frequently traveled to the U.S., where he expanded his expertise in various acting methods. He also mentored as an acting coach under C. Thor for five years. However, his four years of study under Professor Andrei Malaev-Babel solidified his focus on the Demidov School of Acting. Today, as a course leader for the International Demidov Association under Professor Malaev-Babel's supervision, he demonstrates a deep dedication to this approach.

Kimon taught at the Art Theater of Athens for 12 years. He is currently teaching at the Academy "Theater IΟΘ," while simultaneously running his private coaching studio, Phi Playhouse, where he leads S.A.M., Greece's first lifelong learning ensemble for professional actors. Phi Playhouse hopes to serve as a hub in the future for his work with the Demidov technique, nurturing actors in alignment with this philosophy.

In addition to his teaching and acting work, Kimon was a program designer at Aegean College, where he collaborated with East 15 London Conservatory to create Greece's first BA program in acting. His ongoing contributions to actor training are also featured in the book Michael Chekhov and Sanford Meisner: Collisions and Convergence in Actor Training (Routledge, 2020).

Nolan Hennelly is an actor, teacher and voiceover artist based in Harlem, New York City. He holds a BA in theater from Fairleigh Dickinson University and an MFA from the FSU Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training, where he was first introduced to Andrei Malaev-Babel and the Demidov School. After graduation Nolan continued his studies in the Demidov Association's inaugural two-year Certificate Training Program before moving on to be certified as a teacher in the hopes of bringing this incredible work to other actors who may be disenchanted by their previous instruction. Prior to joining the teacher certification program of the Demidov Association, Nolan served as an assistant professor and associate producer of theater at Fairleigh Dickinson University where he directed productions of Miss Julie, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and debuted a new adaptation of Lysistrata, co-written with his brother, comedian Griffin Hennnelly.

As an actor Nolan has toured across Florida  and is no stranger to the New York City theater festival scene where he got his start at the age of 19 writing and starring in an original musical (The Two Month Rule) at the Pershing Square Signature Center through the New York Musical Theater Festival. Currently, Nolan has dedicated himself to an ongoing project entitled Nolan Reads - the goal of which is to release free, high-quality audiobooks of classic novels and literary works through YouTube by authors such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mary Shelly and many more. He hopes in time to grow this collection of titles and the scope of the work to bring contemporary high-quality recordings of books and eventually  classic plays to audiences that may not otherwise engage with or discover those works. These recordings collectively have over a million views and have been listened to for over six hundred thousand hours.