Yulia Peresild

Yulia Sergeevna Peresild (; born 5 September 1984) is a Russian stage actress, singer and cosmonaut. Leading actress of the Malaya Bronnaya Theatre. Participant of a space flight within the framework of the scientific and educational project The Challenge: The First in Space, during which she participated in the filming of episodes of the feature film The Challenge. She is the first professional actress to act in outer space after her spaceflight to the ISS in October 2021. She became the fifth woman in the history of the Soviet Union and Russia to travel into space, and the second to work and live on the ISS. Early life Peresild was born in Pskov, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union. Her father was an icon painter and her mother was a kindergarten worker. Her surname comes from her Estonian paternal great-grandparents, who were deported to the Russian SFSR. In 2001 she graduated from secondary school No. 24 in the city of Pskov. After school, she entered the Faculty of Russian Philology of the Pskov State Pedagogical Institute, but after studying for only one year, she went to Moscow and entered a theater university. In 2006, she graduated from the acting department of the directing department of the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts.