Ilya Belyakov

Ilya Belyakov (Russian: Илья Беляков, Korean: 일리야 벨랴코프, born 26 August 1982) is a South Korean of Russian origin who lives and performs in South Korea as a television personality, medical interpreter, professional linguist and language teacher.^[2][3][4]

He was born in Vladivostok, a port city of the Russian Far East, an approximate two-hour flight from Seoul, where he majored in Korean language at Far Eastern Federal University.^[5]

He arrived in South Korea for the first time in 2003, and received the highest score, for a Russian, on the language proficiency test TOPIK. He completed a master's degree at the Korean Language Institute of Yonsei University as a scholarship student supported by the Korea Foundation, and in 2015 was studying for a Ph.D in anthropology and linguistics at the University of South Carolina. He is fluent in Japanese, English, French and Spanish, as well as Korean.^[5]

He started working at Samsung's global human resources department in 2010.^[4][6]

He is a contributing columnist for Korea.net, sharing anecdotal and cultural perspectives as a Russian living in Seoul.^{[7][8][9][10]}

On 17 November 2014 he was a "visiting intern" guest on the JTBC talk-variety show Non-Summit, that was made of a cast of young men from different countries, living in Seoul, who debated and discussed issues, in Korean, with perspectives they brought from their various cultures, from their native countries.^[4][11] He was selected to become a permanent cast member on 12 January 2015 for Episode 28.^[2][3] As part of the cast, along with more serious discussions, he shared his old-fashioned dress style of bell-bottoms,^[12][13] entertained with a song duet with Baek Jiyoung,^[14][15] and told stories of growing up in Russia.^[16] When Non-Summit changed six members of the cast on 29 June 2015, after Episode 52,^[17] in order to add new cast from different countries, he was recognized, by his fans and the show's audience, as a special contributing member to the show's reception.^{[18][19][20][21]}

In April 2015, he and Non-Summit cast member Tyler Rasch, both Honorary Culture Sharing Ambassadors of the Korea Foundation, attended a ceremony for the new "Koreans and Foreigners Together" program.^[22]