Lado Okhotnikov was born in Kazakhstan and grew up in Tatarstan. In his childhood and teenage years, he trained in Greco-Roman wrestling under the guidance of his father, who was also his coach. He repeatedly won regional championships. In 2001, Lado graduated from the Directing Faculty of VIPPKRK, a branch of VGIK (the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography), with a degree in film directing. While still a student, he began staging productions and started his first entrepreneurial ventures. He later became interested in cryptocurrency and virtual worlds. He began creating projects in 2000. In 2022, he launched an international GameFi project, now known as Meta Whale. In 2024, he launched a new ecosystem called Holiverse, which also includes the film company Lado Film. Lado’s screenwriting debut was his work on the film Holiguards (2025), co-written with Sergey Torchilin and directed by Kevin Spacey. Selected Work: Holiguards (2025) — Screenwriter and actor. A supernatural action-thriller directed by Kevin Spacey