Nik Xhelilaj

Kreshnik Xhelilaj (born 5 March 1983), known professionally as Nik Xhelilaj, is an Albanian actor.^[1]

He began his international career with the film The Sorrow of Mrs. Schneider, directed by Piro Milkani and Eno Milkani, and has starred in three critically acclaimed Albanian films, two of which were included in the List of Albanian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2008 and 2009. Nik has won several "Best Actor" awards at various international film festivals.^[2][3]

Nik Xhelilaj was born on 5 March 1983 in Tirana to a family originally from Southern Albania, specifically the Labëria region, with his father coming from Vlorë and his mother from Tepelenë.^[4] Both of his parents are high military officers by profession. So, at the age of 14, also thanks to his father's interest, he went to Istanbul to attend the military high school. But his new way did not last more than 4 months and he decided to give up the military career and return to Albania.^[5]

Nik originally wanted to pursue a career in law, but failed to win a place at university in the qualifying round. While waiting for the next round in the following year, he became interested in acting and started attending acting classes. Eventually he got involved with other young artists in the Sirea Film projects, with film directors Leonard Bombaj and Alfred Trebicka, who advised him to apply to the Academy of Arts.^[6]

In 2003, at the age of 20, Nik entered the Academy of Arts to study acting. In 2004, having just finished his freshman year, Nik was chosen by the experienced film director Pirro Milkani to play the lead role of Lekë Seriani in the film The Sorrow of Mrs. Schneider (Albanian: Trishtimi i zonjës Shnajder), which had strong autobiographical elements. The plot itself dealt generally with the life of director Milkani in the 1960s, during his studies in the then Czechoslovakia. Although he didn't speak any Czech, the young actor memorised his Czech lines for the whole film and learned how to pronounce them.^[6] It was also here that he became widely known by his stage name or nickname Nik, as the film's producers found the Albanian name Kreshnik difficult to pronounce and suggested a shorter version.^[6] The film was released in 2008 and was the Albanian submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film that year, but was not nominated.

Xhelilaj was part of the first season of the reality show Dancing with the Stars, which took place between 18 February and 7 May 2010. The couple, consisting of the actor and professional dancer Olta Ahmetaj, were the fifth to be eliminated from the competition (out of 12 couples), thus forfeiting the first prize of €50,000.^[7]

• Nik Xhelilaj at IMDb