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Johann Urb was born in Tallinn, Estonia, on 24 January 1977 into the family of Tarmo and Maris. When Johann was 10, he moved to Finland with his mother and her new husband. They lived in several small towns until they finally settled in Tampere. At the age of 17 Johann moved to his father's in New York, where he soon started a modeling career. In 2001, he landed a small part in the movie Zoolander (2001). After that, he did a role in the short movie Fear of Feathers (2003) and appeared in one episode of CSI: Miami (2002). In 2004, he got a part in the short-running TV-show The Mountain (2004). After that, he appeared as a guest on several TV shows and appeared in more minor film roles. In 2008, Johann got his first big film role in the much-hated The Hottie & the Nottie (2008). In 2009, things seemed to go up when he made a short but memorable appearance as the sexy, heroic pilot in Roland Emmerich's disaster epic 2012 (2009) and played a journalist in the fantasy TV series Eastwick (2009), which brought him critical recognition. At the moment, Johann has two romantic comedies in work.

Reimo Sagor was born on 14 May 1987 in Lääne-Nigula, Lääne, Estonia. He is an actor, known for Take It or Leave It (2018), Zero Point (2014) and The Days That Confused (2016).

Pääru Oja was born on 16 May 1989 in Tallinn, Estonia. He is an actor, known for The Shadow (2024), Mihkel (2018) and The Last Ones (2020).

Juhan Ulfsak was born on 18 April 1973 in Estonia. He is an actor and writer, known for Tenet (2020), Doktor Stockmann (1989) and Esto TV (2000).

Maarja Johanna Mägi was born in Tartu, Estonia. She studied acting at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre and made her film debut as the female lead in Elmo Nüganen's movie trilogy Melchior The Apothecary, for which she was awarded Best Film Actress at the 2023 Estonian Film Awards. In 2025, she was honored as the EFP Shooting Star at the Berlin International Film Festival. She also plays a lead role in the film Aurora, which was made using the character-based improvisation method.

Ivan Triesault was born on 13 July 1898 in Reval, Russian Empire [now Tallinn, Harjumaa, Estonia]. He was an actor, known for Notorious (1946), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) and The Amazing Transparent Man (1960). He died on 3 January 1980 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Märt Avandi was born on 26 February 1981 in Rapla, Estonia. He is an actor and writer, known for The Fencer (2015), Riigimehed (2010) and Malev (2005).

Marko Leht was born in Estonia. He is known for Wonder Woman (2017), Ripper Street (2012) and Lucky Man (2016).

Born in 1931, Narda became friends with Robert I. McCarthy when she was an eleven-year-old laundress for McCarthy's anti-aircraft battalion in Bonn.

In 1944, she was a child actress in Estonia. To escape the Russians, she, her grandparents, her mother and 2-year-old brother took to the sea bound for Sweden. Picked up as Germans, they were taken to Danzig. Amidst much confusion, because they spoke fluent German they were able to meld into the daily life there. The Onyx family later made their way to the American occupied forces at Bonn and sought refuge with the Swedish Red Cross. Later the family moved to Sweden; Narda resumed her acting career. Traveling to England where she worked for the Old Vic Company.

She then went to Canada to perform on stage and television. After appearing in some 70 television shows over the past six years, on October 20, 1961, she became an American citizen. While in Canada she met and married George Virand, also an Estonian refuge, where they moved to Hollywood.

Lembit Ulfsak was born on 4 August 1947 in Koeru, Estonian SSR, USSR [now Estonia]. He was an actor and director, known for Tangerines (2013), Keskea rõõmud (1987) and Doktor Stockmann (1989). He was married to ??? and Epp. He died on 22 March 2017 in Tallinn, Estonia.

Katariina Unt was born on 6 December 1971 in Tallinn, Estonian SSR, USSR [now Estonia]. She is an actress, known for Undergods (2020), Lioness (2024) and Somnambulance (2003). She was previously married to Raivo E. Tamm and Indrek Sammul.

Arvo Pärt is one of those composers in the world, whose creative output has significantly changed the way we understand the nature of music. In 1976, he created a unique musical language called tintinnabuli, that has reached a vast audience of various listeners and that has defined his work right up to today. There is no compositional school that follows Pärt, nor does he teach, nevertheless, a large part of the contemporary music has been influenced by his tintinnabuli compositions.

Childhood and studies Arvo Pärt was born on 11 September 1935 in Paide, where he also spent his first years. In 1938, the Pärt family moved to Rakvere, where he began to study piano at Rakvere Music School under Ille Martin. Having graduated from Rakvere Secondary School No 1 (1954), he continued studying music at the Tallinn Music School under Veljo Tormis. His studies were interrupted by mandatory military service in the Soviet Army (1954-1956), after which, in 1957, he continued at the Tallinn State Conservatoire under Heino Eller graduating in 1963. Several works composed during his student years still belong to the official list of his compositions: two sonatinas (1958-1959) and partita (1958) for piano, and orchestral works such as Nekrolog (1960), Perpetuum mobile (1963) and Symphony No. 1 (1963).

Early period (1958-1968) Pärt worked as a sound engineer at the Estonian Radio from 1958 to 1967. Those were also the years of his early modernist compositions. Estonian music in the 1960s was shaped by an entire generation of innovative composers with a modern approach - although a few years older, besides Pärt there were Eino Tamberg, Veljo Tormis, Jaan Rääts and their junior follower Kuldar Sink. Almost simultaneously through their music all the most important styles and compositional techniques of the 20th century were introduced to Estonian music: neoclassicism, dodecaphony, serialism, sonorism, collage technique and aleatoricism. The works of Pärt proved to pioneer many of these areas: Nekrolog is the first dodecaphonic, Perpetuum mobile the first sonoristic and Collage über B-A-C-H (1964) the first work employing the collage-technique in Estonian music. Pärt had become one of the leading figures in the Soviet avant-garde. Nevertheless, none of those styles remained permanently in his work nor interested him for very long - many of his early compositions can be viewed rather as brilliant experiments or testing the boundaries. However, regardless of the chosen styles or techniques, Pärt's early oeuvre is characterized by a punctual and powerful concept of dramaturgy, concentrated musical material and elaborated form - the elements, which are visibly present in his later tintinnabuli music and can therefore be characterized as the main pillars of his musical thinking.

Arvo Pärt in 1962. The most remarkable line of development in Pärt's early compositions is his collages, which in his case are expressed in a personal and dramatic manner differing from the usual playful character of the collage technique. In his Collage über B-A-C-H, cello concerto Pro et contra (1966), Symphony No. 2 (1966) and Credo (1968), two musical but also spiritual worlds have been set against each other. He describes those worlds as if separated by a deep abyss, which, at the same time, he longs to transcend. Pärt's dodecaphony here represents the "unbearable atmosphere of barbed wire" (to use his own words) of all modernist music, and the quest for beauty, purity and perfection is expressed through the stylization of Baroque music or concrete quotes primarily from Bach, but also Tchaikovsky, for example. Those works are witness to the growing inner anxiety and crisis for the composer. The most extreme and dramatic of them is Credo, composed in 1968 - it is the final renunciation of all means of expression used so far, the turning point in his oeuvre as well as his life.

The reception of his music in the Soviet Union at the time was conflicting and complicated. On one side, he was perceived as one of the most original and outstanding composers of his generation, whose works were also performed and acknowledged outside the USSR. On the other, many of his works composed in the 1960s were heavily criticized; for example, the neoclassical partita, but above all the dodecaphonic Nekrolog. However, it was not the composition style that caused the scandal following the premiere of Credo, but its inner message and choice of text as well as the "dangerously" strong impact it had on audiences (when the piece was performed for the very first time, the audience demanded a repetition). With its text in Latin "Credo in Iesum Christum" the composer openly and sincerely confessed to being religious, which was considered provocative and against the Soviet regime at the time. Credo was basically banned and Pärt, as well as his music, fell into disfavour for several years.

Paradoxically, Arvo Pärt was one of the most productive and highly valued composers for film in Estonia throughout the 1960s and 1970s. In 1967, he had become a freelance composer and after the events following Credo, film music was the only field Pärt could openly engage in. Pärt has composed music for many films - "Ukuaru" (1973, directed by Leida Laius), "Diamonds for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat" (1975, directed by Grigori Kromanov), "Navigator Pirx" (1978, directed by Marek Piestrak), to name a few, and also music for animated films.

Years of crisis (1968-1976) and the birth of tintinnabuli Arvo and Nora Pärt with pianist Helju Tauk (in the middle) at the rehearsal of Tabula rasa before the premiere concert, in 1977. In Pärt's creative biography, the years 1968-1976 mark his period of crisis - the final renunciation of the modernist techniques and means of expression used so far, searches for personal musical language and as a result, a radical change in the author's style. "I didn't know at the time that was I going to be able to compose at all in the future. Those years of study were no conscious break, but life and death agonising inner conflict. I had lost my inner compass and I didn't know anymore, what an interval or a key meant," Pärt recalled many years later.

In his new quest for self expression Pärt turned even more intensively towards the early music and became absorbed for years studying Gregorian chant, the Notre Dame School and Renaissance polyphony. The first signs of this appear in his Symphony No. 3 (1971) - one of the very few works that premiered in these years.

It was also the time of important events in Arvo Pärt's personal life as he married and joined the Orthodox Church in 1972.

In 1976, Pärt emerged with a new and highly original musical language, which he called tintinnabuli (from tintinnabulum - Latin for 'little bell'). The new style first appears in a short piece for piano, Für Alina, followed soon by works like Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten (1977), Fratres (1977), Tabula rasa (1977) and Spiegel im Spiegel (1978). Pärt has now been composing in his tintinnabuli-style for over 40 years, and it has proven to be a rich and inexhaustible creative source.

Tintinnabuli music can be defined as a distinct technique, which in essence unites two monodic lines of structure - melody and triad - into one, inseparable ensemble. It creates an original duality of voices, the course and inner logic of which are defined by strict, even complicated mathematical formulas. Through that duality of voices Pärt has given a new meaning to the horizontal and vertical axis of music, and broadened our perception of tonal and modal music in its widest sense.

Tintinnabuli music can also be described as a style in which the musical material is extremely concentrated, reduced only to the most important, where the simple rhythm and often gradually progressing melodies and triadic tintinnabuli voices are integrated into the complicated art of polyphony, expressing the composer's special relationship to silence.

In addition, tintinnabuli is also an ideology, a very personal and deeply sensed attitude to life for the composer, based on Christian values, religious practice and a quest for truth, beauty and purity.

After emigrating (1980 onwards) The first tintinnabuli works were composed and premiered in Tallinn, Estonia - the USSR at that time. As did the avant-garde spirit of Pärt's early works, so led the religious aspect of his tintinnabuli music to more and more controversial reviews and confrontations with Soviet officials. In January 1980, Arvo Pärt was forced to emigrate to Vienna with his wife Nora and two sons. A year later the family moved on a DAAD scholarship to Berlin, where they lived for almost 30 years.

As an active and productive composer, Pärt has continued composing since without any longer breaks. Vocal compositions, often based on liturgical texts or other Christian prayers, comprise a large part of his oeuvre. Among them there are many large-scale compositions for choir and orchestra, such as Passio (1982), Stabat Mater (1985), Te Deum (1985), Miserere (1989/1992), Berliner Messe (1990/2002), Litany (1994/1996), Kanon pokajanen (1997), Como cierva sedienta (1998/2002) and In principio (2003), as well as choral pieces with organ accompaniment or a cappella. One can say that the Word plays an important role in Pärt's oeuvre because even many of his instrumental works are text related and the textural structure is often the basis of his compositional process (i.e. Psalom, 1985; Orient & Occident, 2000; Symphony No. 4, 2008 etc.).

It was also in Germany, where the lasting collaboration with Manfred Eicher, founder and producer of the renowned ECM Records, began. In 1984, ECM released Tabula rasa launching a whole new, highly successful series of recordings under the ECM New Series title, which brought Pärt to the world. His music was soon included in the programmes of many renowned festivals, orchestras and ensembles as well as television and radio broadcasts. Since this debut album, all the first recordings of Pärt's major works have been released under ECM.

Back to Estonia After Estonia regained its independence in 1991, the connections between the Pärt family and Estonia as well as its music scene were restored. In the 1990s, his works were often performed as part of Estonian concert programmes, and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir under the baton of Tõnu Kaljuste also released their first recordings of Pärt's music under ECM.

In the early 2000s, the tradition began of celebrating Arvo Pärt's birthday with concerts in his childhood home towns of Paide and Rakvere, and also in Tallinn. Festivities on a grander scale have been organised in the composer's jubilee years. At the initiative of the Estonian Music Days, the first exhaustive collection of conversations, essays and articles on Pärt was published in Estonian in 2005 ("Arvo Pärt in the Mirror", compiled by Enzo Restagno), the radio show "Arvo Pärt 70", consisting of 14 episodes by Immo Mihkelson was broadcast on Klassikaraadio (Classical Radio) and the international conference "The Cultural Roots of Arvo Pärt's Music" was held at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre in 2010. Since 2010, Nargenfestival organises Pärt Days around the time of the composer's birthday.

During the last decade, Pärt has rearranged approximately 30 of his earlier works as well as having composed around 10 new pieces, Silhouette. Hommage à Gustave Eiffel (commissioned by Orchestre de Paris in 2009/2010), Adam's Lament (2010) commissioned for the European Capitals of Culture Istanbul 2010 and Tallinn 2011 premiering in Istanbul, Swansong (commissioned by the Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg and premiering at the Mozartwoche 2014), and Greater Antiphons (2015), commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and premiered by the same orchestra under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel.

Arvo Pärt has lived permanently in Estonia since 2010. The same year, on the initiative of Arvo and Nora Pärt, the Arvo Pärt Centre was established in Laulasmaa. In collaboration with the composer himself and his family, the APC aims to create and maintain the personal archive of the composer.

Mirtel Pohla is an Estonian actress, born on the 28th of january 1982 She graduated Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre in 2004 and worked in Estonian Drama Theatre from 2004 to 2006. After that she was a member of Theatre NO99 for eight years. Since 2014 she has been working in different theaters and appeared in several feature films and TV series in Estonia.

Kaja Kallas was born on 18 June 1977 in Tallinn, Estonia. She has been married to Arvo Hallik since 2018. They have two children. She was previously married to Roomet Leiger.

Tõnis Pill was born on 21 July 1992 in Tallinn, Estonia. He is an assistant director and director, known for Tenet (2020), Counterpoint (2016) and Homebound (2018).

Born in 1916 as the eldest child of a German-Baltic aristocrat, Baroness Irene Isabella Margarete Pauline Caecila von Meyendorff actually never planned to become a movie star. When the Russian Revolution broke out, the family escaped to Germany, where Irene's mother Elisabeth left her conservative husband with the children to live a very unconventional life in the theatre circles of Weimar/Thuringia. In the early 1930's Irene came to Berlin to work as a cutter in the UFA film studios of Babelsberg. As a breathtaking beautiful, ice-cold blond young woman she would have been the ideal star for Alfred Hitchcock movies. But these were the 1930's and she lived in Nazi Germany. When she was discovered for the screen, her debut was only a mediocre swashbuckler movie - which unexpectedly made her a star. Her best part maybe was the noble Hamburg Patrician daughter Octavia in Veit Harlan's Opfergang (1944). She never was a sympathizer of the Nazi system. Her first husband, Dr. Heinz Zahler, was a member of the Kreisau Circle, a group of religious motivated anti-Nazi-bourgeois. Her beauty attracted Joseph Goebbels, minister of propaganda, who got a harsh rebuff by her ("You would degrade me - and you would degrade yourself"). Joseph Goebbels's infamous nick name "Bock von Babelsberg" (the old horny goat of Babelsberg) was Irene's creation. After the war she only played minor parts in German films. In 1961 she met British actor James Robertson Justice, fell in love with him and left her second husband Pit Severin, a journalist from Hamburg, to follow James Robertson Justice to England. It was 1968 when she returned a last time to screen for a small part in the costume drama Mayerling (1968). She never was interested to continue her career. 8 years after James Robertson Justice's death in 1975, she met and later married philanthropist Keith Bromley. Even at the age of 70 she sailed to the Artic and the Orinoco River. On September 28, 2001, she died in Hampshire after a full, remarkable life.

Rainer Sarnet was born on 3 March 1969 in Rakvere, Estonian SSR, USSR [now Estonia]. Rainer is a director and writer, known for November (2017), The Invisible Fight (2023) and Vaino Vahingu päevaraamat (2021).

Matis Rei was born on 21 November 1988 in Kuressaare, Estonia. Matis is a composer, known for Tár (2022), Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities (2022) and Love Lies Bleeding (2024).

Jüri Lumiste is an actor and director at Vanemuise Theater, the biggest theater in Tartu. From 1993-1999, he was the drama director at Vanemuine Theater. He has also played some TV roles, such as "Kättemaksukontor" and "Kelgukoerad".

Lumiste finished high school in Tartu, and later went on to study in Tartu University. He has also studied abroad, taking part in workshop trips to Russia, Turkey, Finland, Denmark, England, Japan and Germany.

Lumiste's father, Ülo Lumiste, was a Professor Emeritus of Geometry, a mathematician and member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences. Jüri has a brother and three children.

Popular singer and TV host. Member of the Estonian National Opera (both as a singer and as stage director). Enthusiast of Gilbert and Sullivan, whose work he often performs in the UK. Has released several albums in many countries. Has also written best selling novels in English and Estonian. Was presented to HRH Queen Elizabeth in 2006. The knight of the order of St. Stanislaus. Has produced and directed several stage successes at the Estonian National Opera. Established his production company FilMinistry OÜ in 2016, presenting the well received horror drama Behind the Random Denominator and the epic TV history drama The Whores, in 2017.

Einar Kuusk is an actor and director known for playing Arkady Kachimov in Netflix's "Luther: The Fallen Sun", one of the covert operatives in the first season of BBC's crime thriller "The Capture", Branimir in Estonian comedy film "Free Money", his post-apocalyptic sci-fi short film "The Most Beautiful Day" and his YouTube videos.

Scenarist, director and composer Anna Hints was born 27 may 1982 in Tartu, Estonia. Graduated from the Wiedemann High School in Haapsalu in 2000, then studied at the University of Tartu in 2000-2003 in comparative literature and folklore, and in 2003-2009 at the Tartu Art College in photography. In 2010-2013 she continued her studies at the Tallinn University Film and Media School, where she became a Bachelor degree film director, continuing to graduate from one semester in the same field as a Master's degree. Since 2015, Hints has been a member of the Estonian Cinema Association, the Estonian Writers' Association and the Estonian Audiovisual Association.

Tanel Toom was born on 1 November 1982 in Estonia. He is a director and writer, known for Truth and Justice (2019), Last Sentinel (2023) and The Confession (2010).

Priit Pärn was born on 26 August 1946 in Tallinn, Estonian SSR, USSR [now Estonia]. He is a writer and director, known for Elu ilma Gabriella Ferrita (2008), Eine murul (1987) and 1895 (1995).

Carmen Kass is best known for her work as a Victoria's Secrets lingerie model and as a international fashion model. She appeared in five Victoria's Secret Fashion shows in 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2008. Kass had been the face of Michael Kors and Narcisco Rodriguez Frangrance, as well as a spokesmodel for Revlon, Sephora, Christan Dior and Max Factor. She was named model of the year at the VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards in 2000. Kass appeared on the cover or been featured in many international fashion magazines including Vogue, Elle, Image, Numéro, Madame Figaro among others. She studied acting at the famous Lee Strasberg Institute and made several movie appearances. She ran as a candidate for European Parliament for the Res Public Party in 2004 from her native Estonia but was not elected. Kass is a talented chess player and was president of the Estonian National Chess League for eight years. She was born on September 14, 1978 in Tallinn, Estonia, the daughter of Viktor Kass, a chess teacher and Koidu Põlva. Kass was discovered at age fourteen in a supermarket by a model scout.