UK
90 profiles with fame based in UK
UK — figures with Russian and Soviet roots
This page documents 90 notable figures based in UK whose biographies connect to the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, or the states that succeeded them — through birth, parentage, or earlier ancestry. Each profile is sourced and records the specific origin and connection.
Ben Whishaw
British actor whose great-grandmother was Russian
Boris Johnson
UK PM with roots in the Russian Empire
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren, royalty with Russian roots
Katie Melua
Kutaisi-born voice behind Britain's quiet revolution
Nick Clegg
UK Deputy PM with Russian imperial roots
Peter Ustinov
Polyglot actor-playwright with Russian imperial roots
Alexander Gerko
Soviet-born mathematician; founder of the algorithmic market maker XTX Markets
Alexander Lebedev
KGB spy turned press baron of London
Alexander Litvinenko
The spy who came in from the cold—and told all.
Alexander Mamut
The Moscow oligarch who saved British books
Alexander Nix
Cambridge Analytica CEO whose Russian-connected data scandal shook global democracy
Amy Winehouse
Singer and songwriter; great-great-granddaughter of an emigrant from Minsk
Andre Geim
Born in Sochi in 1958; shared the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics for experiments on graphene
Andrew Garfield
Actor; grandson of a Kielce-born emigrant to London
Andriy Shevchenko
The Ukrainian striker who conquered Europe
Anna Pavlova
Prima ballerina of the Imperial Russian Ballet; first ballerina to tour the world
Artem Oganov
The algorithmist who maps matter's future
Bernard Delfont
Born in Tokmak, Russian Empire; London theatre impresario and life peer
Bill Browder
Grandson of a Communist, foe of the Kremlin
Boris Akunin
Georgia-born master who reinvented Russian crime fiction
Boris Berezovsky
From Soviet math labs to London exile.
Boris Grebenshchikov
Leningrad-born singer-songwriter, founder of Aquarium (1972)
Carl Barât
The Libertines co-founder with Russian, French and Polish roots who defined British indie rock
Cesar Milstein
Argentine-British Nobel laureate from a Russian-immigrant family who invented monoclonal antibodies
Daniel Radcliffe
Actor; his mother's Jewish family includes a great-great-grandmother born in Russia
David Miliband
British Foreign Secretary 2007–10 and president of the International Rescue Committee since 2013; grandson of a Warsaw leather worker born in the Russian Empire
Denis Sverdlov
Russian entrepreneur who founded Arrival — the electric vehicle startup that shook Detroit
Dennis Gabor
Budapest-born British physicist who invented holography and won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Physics
Dominic Raab
Former UK Deputy Prime Minister whose father fled Czechoslovakia with Russian imperial roots
Ed Miliband
British Foreign Secretary since July 2026 and Leader of the Labour Party 2010–15; grandson of a Warsaw leather worker born in the Russian Empire
Eugene Shvidler
Ufa-born oligarch, Roman Abramovich's closest partner and the man behind Sibneft
Evgeny Chichvarkin
St. Petersburg entrepreneur who built Russia's biggest mobile phone chain and fled to London
Evgeny Kissin
Moscow-born pianist who gave his Carnegie Hall recital debut in 1990, aged 18
Gavin Rossdale
Bush frontman whose original family name was Rosenthal — Russian-Jewish roots on his father's side
George Sanders
British actor born in St Petersburg in 1906; Academy Award for All About Eve, Rebecca, The Picture of Dorian Gray and the voice of Shere Khan
Grant Shapps
UK Defence Secretary whose family came from Lithuania and Russia in the Russian Empire era
Harold Pinter
Nobel laureate playwright whose grandparents came from Poland and Odesa
Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė
Vilnius-born actress who starred in Mission: Impossible and became a star across three cultures
Isaiah Berlin
Philosopher and historian of ideas, author of 'Two Concepts of Liberty'; born in Riga, a child witness of the Petrograd revolutions of 1917
Jason Isaacs
Lucius Malfoy actor with Eastern European Jewish roots who became one of British film's finest character actors
Katya Jones
St. Petersburg-born multiple world champion who became Strictly Come Dancing's Russian star
Kim Philby
British intelligence officer and Soviet agent who went to Moscow in 1963
Konstantin Novoselov
Born in Nizhny Tagil, won the Nobel Prize for isolating graphene with Scotch tape
Kristina Rihanoff
Vladivostok-born ballroom champion and Strictly Come Dancing professional dancer
Len Blavatnik
Odessa-born billionaire who bought Warner Music, built Access Industries and became the UK's richest man
Lev Leviev
Born in Tashkent, became the Diamond King of the World and one of the wealthiest Israelis alive
Lew Grade
Born in Tokmak, Russian Empire; British television producer and impresario
Lilia Kopylova
Moscow-born ballroom champion and Strictly Come Dancing professional dancer
Lily Collins
Actress of Emily in Paris, To the Bone and Mank, twice nominated for a Golden Globe; Russian Jewish descent through her maternal grandfather
Lydia Kavina
Moscow-born grandniece of Leon Theremin — the world's foremost theremin virtuoso
Malcolm Rifkind
Foreign Secretary 1995–97, Defence, Transport and Scottish Secretary under Thatcher and Major; his family came from Mosėdis in the Kovno Governorate
Marc Bolan
T. Rex glam rock pioneer whose father Simeon Feld came from Polish-Russian Jewish roots
Margaret Hodge
UK Labour politician with Russian-Jewish roots who became the most feared tax investigator in Parliament
Mark Ronson
London-born producer of Amy Winehouse's Back to Black; his Ashkenazi Jewish ancestors came from Austria, Lithuania and Russia
Marty Feldman
The goggle-eyed comic genius of Young Frankenstein — his parents came from Kyiv
Mick Jones
The Clash guitarist whose mother fled Russian Jewish pogroms — co-wrote London Calling
Mikhail Khodorkovsky
Russia's richest man, jailed by Putin for 10 years — now runs the anti-Putin opposition from London
Naum Gabo
Constructivist sculptor born Naum Pevzner in 1890; co-author of the Realistic Manifesto (Moscow, 1920); later in Berlin, England and the United States
Nigel Lawson
UK Chancellor of the Exchequer with Latvian-Russian Jewish roots who engineered the Lawson Boom
Nigella Lawson
Food writer and broadcaster — How to Eat, How to Be a Domestic Goddess, Nigella Bites; great-granddaughter of a merchant from Mitau in Courland
Nikolai Medtner
Moscow-born composer and pianist of German parentage — Rachmaninoff called him the greatest composer of our time
Nikolay Storonsky
Dolgoprudny-born physicist who co-founded Revolut — Europe's most valuable fintech startup
Oxxxymiron (Miron Fyodorov)
Leningrad-born rapper educated at Oxford who became Russia's greatest lyricist — now an anti-war exile
Pete Doherty
Libertines co-frontman whose Russian roots come via maternal family lines and a teenage poetry prize trip to Russia
Peter Green
Fleetwood Mac founder whose parents came from Russia and Poland — one of the greatest blues guitarists ever
Sacha Baron Cohen
Comedian and actor from a Belarusian Jewish family on his father's side
Sergei Skripal
Former GRU colonel and double agent poisoned with Novichok in Salisbury — one of the Cold War's most dramatic epilogues
Sophie Winkleman
British actress with Russian-Jewish grandmother who married into the British royal family
Sultan Saidov
Chechen-British entrepreneur building international technology ventures from London
Tamara Karsavina
Born in St. Petersburg — Diaghilev's prima ballerina and Nijinsky's partner in The Firebird and Petrushka
Victoria Tennant
British actress with Russian grandfather — married Steve Martin and starred in LA Story
Vladimir Kara-Murza
Moscow journalist who survived two poisoning attempts and was imprisoned by Putin — then won the Pulitzer Prize
Vladimir Lisin
Steel magnate from Ivanovo who became Russia's richest man and a champion clay-target shooter
Yuri Shefler
Exiled Moscow businessman who owns the Stolichnaya vodka brand and runs SPI Group from London
Mikhail Prokhorov
Moscow billionaire who owned the Brooklyn Nets and ran against Putin — then lost everything
Oleg Tinkov
Founded Tinkoff Bank, renounced Russian citizenship in 2022 after publicly opposing the Ukraine war
Nikita Vitiugov
Former Russian Chess Champion who moved to the English Chess Federation after 2022
Anatoly Kuznetsov
Born in Kyiv — survived Babi Yar as a boy, wrote the first eyewitness account of the massacre
Abakar Saidov
Dagestani-born AI entrepreneur who co-founded Beamery — a $800M+ AI talent management platform
Dmitry Tokarev
Russian-born founder of Copper.co — one of the world's leading institutional crypto custodians
Evgeny Lebedev
Son of a KGB officer — owns the Evening Standard and The Independent, sits in the House of Lords
Andrey Andreev
Russian-born founder of Badoo who launched Bumble — the dating app that made women message first
Igor Bukhman
Vologda-born co-founder of the mobile game company Playrix
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Grandson of a Romanov grand duchess born at Pavlovsk, whose DNA identified the last imperial family
Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent
Daughter of a Russian grand duchess, the last foreign princess to marry into the British royal family
Prince Michael of Kent
Grandson of a Russian grand duchess, qualified Russian interpreter, whose DNA helped identify the Romanovs
King Charles III
King of the United Kingdom, great-grandson of a Russian grand duchess born at Pavlovsk
Ira Aldridge
African-American Shakespearean tragedian who toured the Russian Empire from 1858, befriended Taras Shevchenko and died on tour in Łódź
Edmund de Waal
British ceramic artist and author of The Hare with Amber Eyes; great-grandson of Viktor von Ephrussi, born in Odessa in 1860
Vladimir Tchernavin
Ichthyologist born in Tsarskoye Selo in 1887 who, with his wife and son, crossed from a Soviet labour camp into Finland in 1932 and later worked at the Natural History Museum in London