Lev Polyakov was born in 1988 in St. Petersburg, Russia, and moved to New York at the age of 4. By the age of 14 he had developed excellent drawing skills thanks to studies with his father, artist & designer Alexander Polyakov. Lev was taught the basics of traditional cel animation by Signe Baumane, while helping her with the production of her short film, “The Dentist”. In the course of one year Lev created three animated shorts, including one-minute traditional cel-painted short, Tragic Kan, which was produced in only two weeks, and was screened at the 2005 Red Shift Film Festival in New York, and the 7-minute Piper the Goat and the Peace Pipe which won the first prize in pre-college category at Ottawa 2005 Int’ Animation Festival. Presently, Lev is an Animation Program student at School of Visual Arts. His latest film, Morning, Day, Evening, Night … and Morning Again was also screened in the undergraduate category at Ottawa 2006.

Find more pictures of Lev in the Gallery.