Jiri Vales

Jiri Vales is a Czech actor, singer and lyricist from Prague. He was born in 1988 in Kladno, Czech Republic, to Ilona, a housewife, and Vaclav, an engineer. He grew up near a traditional European filmmaking venue Barrandov Studios and attended an Elementary School at Chaplin's Square. During the studies at a secondary grammar school he started his first music band and began to attend private singing classes. He also participated at the school musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat as one of the brothers, Zebulun.

After being accepted to the Charles University he found a funk music band, which performs until the present. During his preparation for the work of a geographer at the Faculty of Science he still inclined to performing arts. While completing his bachelor's degree, he decided to develop his singing skills and music theory knowledge at the Rock Department of the International Conservatory Prague. He graduated there in 2017 as Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar.

In 2012 Jiri began his theater career at RockOpera Prague Theatre. He firstly appeared there due to his physical abilities, in an acrobatic part hanging on a rope with a flaming sword in a successful rock opera "Antigona". Later he acted and sang parts of Eteocles in "7 Against Thebes" and Benvolio in "Romeo and Juliet". Jiri, further, gained musical theater experiences in a sci-fi musical, "Ray Bradbury's 2116" premiered in Prague in 2016, directed by Steve Josephson. He also joined a symphonic-rock musical project, "Kings of Avalon", which confirmed his lifelong affection for a fantasy genre.

His first movie and TV appearances came shortly after his first theater steps. Frequent cooperation with independent filmmakers and cinematography students of FAMU in Prague let him develop his acting in front of a camera and deepened his inclination to work within an international crew. The consequence of his joyful working on spoken word was his focus on drama theater.

Jiri's entrance into drama is related to a theater company of Marianna Arzumanova, GITIS's graduate, a director and established acting coach in Prague. Jiri got casted for characters as Treplev (Seagal), Jesus (Master and Margaret), Stanton (Dangerous Corner) and Henrich (Dragon) which all contributed to his favor with profound and independent art.

The fostering of his drama skills led to broader opportunities in film and television. Besides Czech series and movies (Vysoka hra, Sever, Polda), Jiri has been casted for English and German projects such as World on Fire, Freud, Das Boot 2, Ottilie von Faber-Castell etc.

Jiri is interested in music - composes songs, writes lyrics for his band, sings and plays guitar. He experienced several trainings in contemporary dance. He enjoys sports like hockey, football, canoeing and cycling, and loves wandering and travelling.