Inga Ilm was born on December 22, 1971 in Leningrad. Inga’s parents loved to gather in their house the company of interesting intelligent people, among whom were actors. One day, a friend voiced the idea of making a little Inga in a movie. The picture of the girl was taken to Lenfilm in the acting file.
Young Inga was noticed not immediately, the photo lay at the studio for 6 years, but when in 1983 the offer was received, it was an offer that changed the whole life of the future actress.
Director Vladimir Mikhailovich Alenikov began shooting “The Adventures of Petrov and Vasechkin” and approved Egor Druzhinin and Dima Barkov for the main roles. It was necessary to find a girl for the role of Masha Startseva. Casting went easy. The director simply offered the guys to choose the girl themselves, spreading photos of the candidates for the role in front of them. Without agreeing, both boys immediately chose the photo of Inga.
After the release of the film immediately attracted attention. Instead of the usual “smooth” pioneers, on the screen there were normal live children who love to have fun and fool around.
After the success of the film, the director began shooting a sequel called
"Vacations of Petrov and Vasechkin .
The picture became extremely popular and spread to popular expressions throughout the country. And the actors who played the main roles, Vasya Petrov (Dima Barkov), Petya Vasechkin (Egor Druzhinin) and Masha Startseva (Inga Ilm) at one point became famous. In the heroine Inga fell in love with all the boys of the country. And even today, many years after the success of the film, journalists are sure to ask the actress questions about this role and all-Union love.
After school, Inga went to Moscow and entered the Moscow Art Theater for the course of Y. I. Eremin, the chief director of the Pushkin Theater. Even during training, Inga began to actively act in films. So, for 1992-93, 8 films with her participation were released, and mainly in the main roles.
On the set of the Russian-Irish melodrama, Inga Ilm met director Jerry McCarthy, whom she married immediately after filming.
After graduation in 1993, Inga went to New York to study at the acting school of Lee Strasberg.
A year later, Inga Ilm returned to Moscow, where in 1995 she was accepted into the troupe of the Pushkin Theatre. On the stage of this theater, Inga worked until 2001. During this time, she played in various performances: “The Last Night of Carnival” (Elleneta) and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (Hermia), etc. And also on the stage of the theater, the actress, along with a former classmate Evgeny Pisarev, staged a wonderful play "Love and all that..." (Lee Salinger), and played three roles in it.
In addition to theater and cinema, in the creative biography of the actress there is work on television. At VGTRK, she had the opportunity to conduct a music program “Hot Ten”, together with actor Dmitry Maryanov – a youth program “Open Project” on the TVC channel, as well as a news program on the M1 channel.
Now Inga Valeryevna lives in Moscow and runs a small publishing house. /