Kreshnik Xhelilaj (born 5 March 1983), known professionally as Nik Xhelilaj, is an Albanian actor.
He began his international career with the film The Sorrow of Mrs. Schneider, directed by Piro Milkani and Eno Milkani, and has starred in three critically acclaimed Albanian films, two of which were included in the List of Albanian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2008 and 2009. Nik has won several "Best Actor" awards at various international film festivals.
Biography Nik Xhelilaj was born on 5 March 1983 in Tirana to a family originally from Southern Albania, specifically the Labëria region, with his father coming from Vlorë and his mother from Tepelenë. Both of his parents are high military officers by profession. So, at the age of 14, also thanks to his father's interest, he went to Istanbul to attend the military high school. But his new way did not last more than 4 months and he decided to give up the military career and return to Albania.
2003–2008: Early career and The Sorrow of Mrs. Schneider Nik originally wanted to pursue a career in law, but failed to win a place at university in the qualifying round. While waiting for the next round in the following year, he became interested in acting and started attending acting classes. Eventually he got involved with other young artists in the Sirea Film projects, with film directors Leonard Bombaj and Alfred Trebicka, who advised him to apply to the Academy of Arts.
In 2003, at the age of 20, Nik entered the Academy of Arts to study acting. In 2004, having just finished his freshman year, Nik was chosen by the experienced film director Pirro Milkani to play the lead role of Lekë Seriani in the film The Sorrow of Mrs. Schneider (), which had strong autobiographical elements. The plot itself dealt generally with the life of director Milkani in the 1960s, during his studies in the then Czechoslovakia. Although he didn't speak any Czech, the young actor memorised his Czech lines for the whole film and learned how to pronounce them. It was also here that he became widely known by his stage name or nickname Nik, as the film's producers found the Albanian name Kreshnik difficult to pronounce and suggested a shorter version. The film was released in 2008 and was the Albanian submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film that year, but was not nominated.
2010: Dancing with the Stars Xhelilaj was part of the first season of the reality show Dancing with the Stars, which took place between 18 February and 7 May 2010. The couple, consisting of the actor and professional dancer Olta Ahmetaj, were the fifth to be eliminated from the competition (out of 12 couples), thus forfeiting the first prize of €50,000.
Filmography Film Year Title Role Note 2008 The Sorrow of Mrs. Schneider Lekë Seriani Albanian-Czech film 2009 Alive Koli Albanian film 2010 The Albanian Arben Shehu German-Albanian film 2010 Filma të shkurtër 2010/2 Ernest Albanian short film 2013 Real Playing Game Young Boris Portuguese film Üç Yol Benjamin Turkish-Bosnian film 2014 Seven Lucky Gods Mehmet British-Albanian film 2017 Zer Jan Kurdish film Distant Angels Shpëtim Albanian film Atila Kujtim Albanian short film 2018 Direniş Karatay Börke Turkish film Don't. Get. Out! Falke German film 2021 The Albanian Virgin Flamur Albanian film 2023 Policë për kokë Maksimilian Murati Albanian film 2024 Luna Park Berti Albanian film
Television Year(s) Title Role Note 2012–2013 Kayıp Şehir Kadir Turkish TV series 2014 Her Sevda Bir Veda Yusuf Turkish TV series 2016 Winnetou Winnetou German TV film 2017 4 Blocks Shpend German TV series The Last Emperor Marco Turkish TV series 2018 Nefes Nefese Boran Turkish TV series Milk & Honey Arian German TV series 2019 Alarm for Cobra 11 – The Highway Police Timo German TV series 2020 The Great Seljuks Yorgos Turkish TV series 2021 Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo Dijan German TV series 2022 Rise of Empires: Ottoman Mahmud Pasha Turkish Netflix series 2023 Balko Teneriffa Drasko Jovanov German TV series 2023–2024 Emanet Firtina Poyraz Turkish TV series
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