Ivan Philippov, born in 1982 in Moscow, is a Berlin-based writer, journalist, film executive and co-host of a popular podcast. Ivan graduated from a History Faculty of Moscow State University and for seven years worked as a reporter, starting in the news and graduating to writing about entertainment and media industry for «Vedomosti» at the time a joint-venture of Wall Street Journal and Financial Times. Among many stories published by Ivan Philippov at that time were one on one interviews with public figures from Sheldon Adelson and Bob Iger to Jerry Bruckheimer.

After leaving «Vedomosti» Ivan Philippov joined Alexander Rodnyansky’s CTC Media as the head of corporate PR. For the past 15 years Ivan worked for Mr. Rodnyansky as a creative executive in his US film company AR Content.

As a journalist Ivan Philippov wrote for many Moscow-based publications, including Forbes, GQ and Esquire. Leaving Russia in the first weeks of war for Tbilisi, now he writes for independent Russian media Holod and his op-eds were published in The Guardian in 2022 and 2023. Philippov uses the Telegram social media app as a platform for critical analysis of the torrents of war commentary and propaganda. In Russian, his own channel is called “Na Zzzzzapadnom fronte bez peremen”, which means “All quiet on the Wwwwwestern front”. This is a nod to Erich Maria Remarque’s 1929 anti-war novel of that title, as well as to the “Z” symbol of militaristic nationalism that has come to the fore during the war in Ukraine. Currently Philippov’s channel has nearly 100 000 subscribers on Telegram.

Ivan Philippov has published three books: a non-fiction work on the golden age of modern television and the best TV shows of the past two decades; his debut novel The Shadow, successfully adapted into an audio series by Storytel Original and longlisted for the National Bestseller Prize; and his famous Mouse, now banned in Russia and enjoying massive international press coverage.

He lives with his family in Berlin.