Kandelaki was born in Tbilisi, Georgia. Tina’s father, Givi Kandelaki (1942–2009), a Georgian economist and the director of a vegetable depot in Tbilisi, moved to Moscow upon retirement. Her father is of half Georgian and half Greek origin.^[2] Kandelaki's mother, Elvira Kandelaki (maiden name Alakhverdova), is a narcologist of half Armenian and half Turkish descent.^[3]

Kandelaki graduated from high school #64 in Tbilisi. In 1993, Tina enrolled in Tbilisi State University, where she studied journalism. In 2008, she graduated from the Foreign Affairs Department of the Russian State University for the Humanities.^{[citation needed]}

On 26 November 2006, Kandelaki was involved in a car accident in Nice, France. Kandelaki was a passenger of a Ferrari Enzo driven by Russian businessman and oligarch Suleyman Kerimov when the car went off road and crashed into a tree. The cause of the car accident is unknown. Kerimov was seriously injured and rushed to hospital.^[4]

TV and radio edit

Kandelaki worked for Radio 105 in Tbilisi, Georgia until 1995, when she began working for television and radio stations in Moscow, including M-radio, RDV, Silver Rain Radio, 2x2, Biz-TV, Muz-TV, Vremechko and TV-6. In September 2002, Kandelaki hosted the talk show Details on the STS channel. In February 2003, Kandelaki hosted the TV show The Cleverest.^{[citation needed]}

In 2006, Kandelaki, together with Sergey Dorenko, presented a weekly political program on Echo of Moscow (Russian radio station). In 2008, she hosted Unreal Politics, a show that was aired on NTV. The show started as an experimental online project. In 2009, she hosted Two Stars, a TV show on Channel One. In the same year, she worked as a producer of Infomania, a TV program on STS. Also in 2009, she dubbed Juarez, one of the guinea pigs of the G-Force movie produced by Walt Disney Pictures. In 2010, she was a jury member of KVN Top-League (a TV game show).

Also in 2010, she was a TV-host for the show Perfect Man (STS Channel). She was also a jury member of Bolshaya Raznitsa, a parody show hosted in Odesa (Channel One Russia). From September 22, 2010 to January 19, 2011, she hosted the author's program "Alternatina" on the radio station Vesti FM, together with the chief producer of the radio station Anatoly Kuzichev. In December 2012, the television game The Cleverest, which she hosted since 2003, came to an end.

From February 17 to June 2013, together with Margarita Simonyan, she hosted the political talk show on NTV, "Iron Ladies". From September 17, 2020 to February 16, 2022, she was the host of the "Special Guest" program on RTVI. On September 8, 2021, she was appointed Deputy General Director of Gazprom Media and Managing Director of Gazprom Media Entertainment Television. On February 9, 2022, she was appointed acting director of the TNT channel.^[5]

Public activities edit

In November 2007, Kandelaki condemned the policy of Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili. “A man who acted as a mouthpiece for democracy in Georgia turned out to be a medieval tyrant”.^{[citation needed]}

Since October 2009, Kandelaki is a member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation by invitation of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

In 2011, Kandelaki signed “Letter 55” (a public address from public representatives against the informational undermining of public trust in the Russian judicial system) which condemned the pressure put on the judicial system during the trials against the heads of the Yukos Oil Company.

In February 2022, Kandelaki expressed support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.^[6] On 18 March 2022, she spoke at Vladimir Putin's Moscow rally celebrating the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and justifying Russia's full-scale invasion.^[7] In June 2022, together with her husband Vasily Brovko, she was included in the OFAC's SDN List.^[8]

In January 2024, she was banned from entering Kazakhstan over her online comments alleging that the Russian language was being discriminated against in the Central Asian country. Kandelaki had earlier criticized Kazakhstan's plan to replace the Russian names of railway stations with Kazakh ones, which caused outrage in Kazakhstan.^[9]

Tina Kandelaki is partner and co-owner of Apostol Media Group, a television production and public relations company. Kandelaki is the owner of “Tinatin”, a restaurant opened in Moscow in 2010. The recipes used in the menu of the restaurant have reportedly been passed down from Kandelaki’s mother.^{[citation needed]} From May to November 2011, Kandelaki was on the board of directors of Vyatka-bank. On 29 January 2012, Kandelaki launched a political talk-show with video blogger Dmitry Kamikadze – “A flight with Kamikadze”. Kandelaki is the producer of the program. In March 2012, Kandelaki signed a contract with cosmetics company Oriflame.^[10]

Some of her critics in Russia pointed to her pro-war stance and asked why her 20-year-old son Leontyi Kondrakhin did not volunteer to fight in Ukraine.^[11]

• 2004 – Dazhe ne Dumai 2: Ten’ nezavisimosti – correspondent.
• 2004 – My Fair Nanny (Russian TV series) - cameo
• 2005 – Ne Rodis' Krasivoy (the Russian version of Ugly Betty), small cameo as a spokesperson for Zimaletto company
• 2007 – Daddy's Daughters, a small cameo
• 2009 – The Forbidden Reality, a small cameo
• 2009 – Moriachok, a music video of the Russian band Nochniye Snaiperi
• 2011 – Mama-Moskva – Sanya Sadovaya
• 2011 – Odnazhdy v Baben-Babene
• 2011 – Svetophor, cameo

Dubbing edit

• 2009 – G-Force – Juarez (Russian dub)
• 2008 – Asterix at the Olympic Games – Irina (Russian dub)

• Official Site
• Tina Kandelaki's LiveJournal
• Eating with the enemy: why Russia loves Georgian food, The Independent, March 10, 2010
• Chechen leader wants women covered to prevent 'distractions', The Independent, February 1, 2011
• Tina Kandelaki at the Forbes
• Tina Kandelaki's blog