Ain Mäeots

Ain Mäeots (born 25 December 1971) is an Estonian stage, film, and television actor and stage, film, and television director and producer.

Early life and education

Ain Mäeots was born in Võru, Võru County, in 1971. He has one brother. He is a 1994 graduate of the Tallinn Conservatory (now, the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre) in Tallinn, under instruction of theatre pedagogue and director Ingo Normet. His classmates included Mait Malmsten, Liisa Aibel, Katariina Lauk, Indrek Sammul, and Andres Puustusmaa. His diploma productions included roles in Anton Chekhov's '' Three Sisters'', and Madis Kõiv and Aivo Lõhmus' ' in 1993, and Paul-Eerik Rummo's ''Tuhkatriinumäng'' in 1994.

Stage career

Following graduation in 1994, Mäeots began an engagement at the Vanemuine theatre in Tartu, where he is still currently employed. From 1994 until 1999, he was both an actor and stage director at the theatre. From 1999 until 2006, he was the head of the Vanemuine's drama department, and from 2006 until the present, he was once again a stage director and actor. Some of his earliest work at the Vanemuine included productions of William Shakespeare's ''King Lear'' and August Kitzberg's ''Kaval-Ants ja Vanapagan''. During his many years at the Vanemuine, he has performed as an actor in and director
of works by such varied authors and playwrights as: Reginald Rose, Tom Stoppard, Jean Anouilh, Karl Ristikivi, Mikhail Bulgakov, Émile Zola, Martin McDonagh, Arthur Miller, Leonard Bernstein, Ingmar Bergman, and Rodgers and Hammerstein, among many others.

He has also appeared onstage as an actor in several other theatres in Estonia, including Old Baskin's Theatre in Tallinn, and both the Hansahoovi Theatre MTÜ, and Emajõgi River Summer Theatre in Tartu. He has also appeared onstage in productions in Finland; at the Tampere Theatre in 2003 and the Seinäjoki City Theatre in 2015.

Television career

Ain Mäeots' first substantial role as a television actor came in 1995, playing the role of Juhan Pukspuu in the 1995 Vilja Palm directed Eesti Televisioon (ETV) period drama mini-series '' Wikmani poised'', adapted from the 1988 semi-autobiographical Jaan Kross novel of the same name. Mäeots has also made appearances on a number of television series including: the long-running drama serial ''Õnne 13'' in 2003, the ETV crime drama ' in 2007, the ETV political satire series ''Riigimehed'' in 2010, the Kanal 2 crime drama aeries ' in 2015, and the ETV drama ' in 2015. In 2012, Mäeots plated the character Peeter Tahel in four episodes of the popular TV3 comedy-crime series ''Kättemaksukontor''.

Apart from acting, Mäeots has worked as both a director and producer on the ETV comedy series ''ENSV''; set in the early 1980s, the series humorously reflects on life in the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic and premiered in 2010.

Film

Ain Mäeots' first film role as an actor was a small role in the 2000 Mare Raidma directed short ''Lunastus'', for
Faama Film and Eesti Televisioon. In 2005, he appeared in his first feature-length film as Lembitu in the Kaaren Kaer directed comedy '' Malev''; a skewed interpretation of Estonia's history set in the year 1208. In 2007, he made a cameo appearance in the Rain Tolk and Andres Maimik directed comedy '' Jan Uuspõld läheb Tartusse'' (English release title: ''186 Kilometers''), in which Estonian actor Jan Uuspõld plays a down-on-his-luck caricature of himself, trying to hitchhike from Tallinn to Tartu to perform in a role at the Vanemuine theater.

In 2008, Mäeots made his debut as a film director with the Exitfilm biography ''Taarka'', based on the play of the same name by Kauksi Ülle about the difficult life of Seto folk singer Hilana Taarka. ''Taarka'' has the distinction of being the first feature-length film in the Seto dialect. Mäeots also made a brief appearance in the film in the role of a villager. ''Taarka'' won the 2008 Estonian Cultural Endowment Debut Award.

In 2012, he co-wrote and directed his second film, the drama ''Deemonid''. The film chronicles the unraveling of three people who enter a casino and subsequently confronting their inner demons.

In 2013, he appeared as Erik in the Hardi Volmer directed historical melodrama feature film ', which follows two Estonians, a girl and a boy, born at the beginning of the 20th-century in a Baltic German manor, through the coming decades and all of the revolutions, wars, military occupations, regime collapses, and new beginnings.

In 2015, he played the role of Captain Evald Viires in the Elmo Nüganen directed war film ''1944''. The film is set in World War II and is shown through the eyes of Estonian soldiers who had to pick sides and thus fight against their fellow countrymen. It was selected as the Estonian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards but it was not nominated. In 2019, he played the role of Joosep in the Mart Sander directed fantasy-horror film '.

In 2023, he directed the historical feature film comedy ''Kuulsuse narrid'', adapted from the 1892 story of the same name by Eduard Bornhöhe.

Personal life

Ain Mäeots was married to Kristel Mäeots from 2004 to 2018. The couple had four children. He also has an older son from a previous relationship.Õhtuleht
''Ain Mäeots pani elukaaslase tanu alla'' 22 August 2004. Retrieved 10 February 2017.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Maeots, Ain
1971 births
Living people
Estonian male stage actors
Estonian male film actors
Estonian male television actors
Estonian film directors
Estonian theatre directors
Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre alumni
People from Võru
20th-century Estonian male actors
21st-century Estonian male actors