Alia Azamat Ashkenazi was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan and raised in Moscow, Russia by her paternal grandmother, Soviet journalist and activist, Rano Abduraimova. Alia was heavily involved in drama and literature club in high school and graduated as an Honors student and Valedictorian.

Alia’s father Azamat Abduraimov is an international soccer star and a Champion of 1994 Asian Games. Alia's paternal grandfather Berador is the best Uzbek Goal Scorer of the 20th century, also considered the greatest football player in the history of Uzbek football. Born into a dynasty of elite athletes, Alia herself played junior tennis competitively and now is a vocal fitness aficionado.

Alia started her career in 2006 as a Sports Columnist in Otechestvenny Futbol magazine and a Social contributor for the Russian national newspaper, Uchitelskaya Gazeta. Alia'd achieved an impressive journalistic career for her very young age only to realize that her true love and her true talent lay in dramatic writing and visual storytelling.

From 2008 to 2011 Alia collaborated with United Nations as a Writer-Director of their International Peacemaking Festivals in Moscow. Alia is a recipient of two United Nations Medals for the “Heart to Heart” and “We Live Dreaming of Peace” screenplays; she was also UN-Honored for Writing-Directing the play “Michael Jackson: Peacemaking” and “Sadako” - a short film about Sadako Sasaki, one of the most widely known victims of Hiroshima nuclear attack remembered through the story of one thousand origami cranes she folded before her death.

In 2012 Alia created and hosted a daily radio show “Azamat's Champions” on Radio Terra which became one of the most popular shows of the station. By that time already having a prominent career as a Poet, Alia wrote a song “Solnce” for a pop-rock band, Sahar; the song became chart-topping hit in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and was frequently rotated on Ukranian radio stations.

In 2014 Alia moved to New York to pursue a career in Film and Television. She won a talent-based scholarship and graduated from the New York Film Academy as a Screenwriter. Since then Alia works as a Writer-Director, Script Doctor and Script Supervisor.

In 2018 Alia got married to the No. 1 American Backgammon player and former Goldman Sachs VP, Victor Ashkenazi. Since then Alia uses her marital last name as a Writer-Director and her middle name Azamat in Script Supervisor credits.

As a Writer, Alia is best known for her emotional, often ensemble cast, linear storytelling with a use of unconventional narrative devices, such as retrospect, dream sequences and flashbacks. Any extreme violence in her films is suggested off-screen. The genre of Thriller and female-driven Drama became of a specialty of Alia. She often shows a relationship between an older experienced character (Mentor/Coach) and a younger ambitious Protagonist in a manner similar to a parent-child. Alia grew up in downtown Moscow but spent most of her summers in the family mansion in Tashkent, surrounded by water and mountains, which later became an inspiration for her to set most of her films in the nature-wealthy environments like California, Australian beach-towns and Upstate New York.

As a young girl Alia became intrigued with Kabbalah and Backgammon, two hobbies she continues to have to this day. In fact, Alia is an Expert Backgammon player and a Winner of the 2015 Capital Classic Backgammon Championship held in Washington D.C., as well as a Winner of the 2016 Ultimate Backgammon Tournament held in San Antonio, Texas. She is a numerous-time Finalist of such distinguished US Championships, as Las Vegas Open and New York Metropolitan Open.

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