Mikhail Shchepkin, an outstanding Russian actor and one of the founders of the Russian acting school, was an artist of the Moscow Maly Theatre.

Shchepkin's parents were serfs of the Counts Volkenshtein. His father, Semyon Grigoryevich, served as a valet, while his mother was a hay girl. Mikhail grew up surrounded by love and care. When he turned four, his father became the manager of estates, and the family moved to the Prokhody farm in the Sudzhinsky district. During this time, the boy began learning to read using a prayer book and psalter.

In 1799, Shchepkin entered the Sudzhensky district people's school. On the way there, stopping at the count's residence in the village of Krasnoye, he saw a performance for the first time, the opera "The New Family," which sparked his interest in the theater.

While studying at the Sudzhensky school, he participated in the staging of A.P. Sumarokov's comedy "The Nonsense" in 1800. In 1801-1802, he performed in the home theater of Count Volkenshtein.

In 1802, Shchepkin entered the third class of the Kursk provincial people's school. Through his friend Gorodensky, he met the Barsov brothers, who ran a theater in Kursk. There, he often replaced the prompter and rewrote roles for actors. In 1803, he graduated from the gymnasium, and in 1805, he made his professional stage debut in the play "Zoa" by L.-S. Mercier, playing the postman Andrei. In 1808, with the permission of Count Volkenshtein, Shchepkin was accepted into the Barsov theater troupe for comedic roles.

In 1812, he married Elena, a pupil of General Chalikov, a native Turkish woman. They had four children: sons Dmitry and Nikolai, and daughters Fekla and Alexandra.

In 1816, Shchepkin joined the troupe of I.F. Stein and O.I. Kalinovsky in Kharkov, where he became known as the best comic actor. He played a variety of roles, including female ones, such as Yeremeyevna in D.I. Fonvizin's "The Minor." Fans decided to buy out the actor, and after paying the missing amount, Prince Repnin acquired him. Three years later, Shchepkin became free, having paid off his debt to the prince. In 1818, he moved to the Poltava theater of I.P. Kotlyarevsky for leading roles. In 1821, he performed again with I.F. Stein and worked in the Poltava theater. Gradually, he developed his acting method, striving for naturalness and liveliness in his performance, bringing complexity and ambiguity to his characters.

In 1822, he was invited to the Moscow theater, which became the Maly Theater in 1824, where he worked for the rest of his life. His dramatic talent was revealed in the roles of Shylock ("The Merchant of Venice") and Simon ("The Sailor" by T. Sovazh and J. Deluryé) in 1835. Gradually, he moved away from satirical roles, preferring dramatic and tragic images. Iconic roles included Muromsky in "The Wedding of Krechinsky" by Sukhov-Kobylin (1855), Lyubim in "Poverty is No Vice" by Ostrovsky, Polonius in Shakespeare's "Hamlet," and Harpagon in Molière's "The Miser." Contemporaries called him "the Pushkin of the Russian stage." In 1855, he celebrated the 50th anniversary of his creative activity.

Shchepkin was friends with many famous poets, writers, and public figures of his time, such as A.S. Pushkin, N.V. Gogol, T.G. Shevchenko, A.N. Ostrovsky, I.S. Turgenev, and others. Gogol wrote the play "The Marriage" specifically for his benefit performance. Shchepkin himself contributed to the publication of banned plays by Griboedov, Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev, and Sukhov-Kobylin.

In 1863, with the permission of the sovereign, Shchepkin received leave with pay for a trip to Crimea to improve his health. On the way and in Crimea, he gave performances. During a reading of an excerpt from "Dead Souls," he fell ill, and on August 11, Mikhail Semyonovich Shchepkin passed away. He was buried on September 22 at the Pyatnitskoye cemetery in Moscow.