GIA SKOVA

by Sherif Awad

Model, Actress, Kickboxer and Film Director

She was born in the small village of Saratov, just outside Kazakhstan, Russia. Gia was discovered as an actress at the of age of twelve and for the next three years, she starred in Russian television series. At fifteen, she won "The Beauty of the Volga" contest which launched her professional modeling career. She was a teen supermodel in Moscow by the following year, winning many awards such as Ms. Saratov, Ms. FHM, Ms. Fashion Style and Ms. Great Volga. The Italian modeling agency Modus signed her and Gia worked in several large projects in Italy, France, Spain, and a number of Asian countries. Still in her teens, Gia also starred in several plays in Moscow, winning acting awards such as Best Theatrical Actress of Saratov, and 2009's Best Actress of Moscow Theater. “Between European cities and New York, I was also studying acting courses with great teachers”, says Gia to www.meetingvenus.com . “I think arts are related to practice and creation from one’s mind rather than spending years of studies”.

Since 2010, Gia was also appearing in films and TV series before deciding to write, star and direct her action films The Serpent. “Becoming a director made me responsible for the technical aspects of the film : writing, casting and storyboarding”, explains Gia. “In the beginning, I found hard to hire some crew members who wanted to do stuff their own old-fashioned way. I need to realize the film’s set pieces in a smart way because I was working within a tight budget of 1.5 million dollars although our forecast was to realize the film with 5 million dollars. I succeeded to secure the budget because I had a couple investors who basically believed in my talent. I have other projects for which I am raising funds which is not a problem if you make the investors believe they will recoup their money back. In making movies, risk really lies in very big budgets”.

Gia is currently negotiating selling theatrical rights to The Serpent across different territories. This also includes a video game inspired by the story of the film that revolves around a special  agent called Lucinda Kavsky who gets betrayed by her own people. “I choreographed my fight scenes and performed all the stunts because it was so easy for me”, laughed Gia whose character is reminiscent of Nikita, Lucy, and Colombiana created by Luc Besson. “ This will only help me because my skills will be compared to this level filmmaking”, adds Gia. “While my Serpent’s budget is 1.5 million dollars, Luc Besson’s Anna was made for 30 million dollars”.