Jan Uuspõld

Jan Uuspõld (born 14 December 1973) is an Estonian stage, television, radio and film actor and musician.

Jan Uuspõld was born in Tallinn, the eldest of three sons of Ingar and Heidi Uuspõld. His mother is an accountant and his father was a long-distance truck driver. He was raised mostly in Hiiu, Nõmme and attended schools in Keila and Tallinn. In middle school was enrolled in music class and sang in a school choir. He graduated from Tallinn’s 1st Industrial High School in 1991 where he trained as an offset printer. As a teenager, he wished to become a musician. Influenced in part by the Estonian punk rock band J.M.K.E., he formed a punk band called Trakulla at age fifteen with several classmates and younger brother Andrus after his mother gave him money to buy a guitar. The band went through several music styles and incarnations until eventually being called Luxury Filters and playing predominately jazz and Texas blues inspired songs. After recording several songs, the band appeared on the television Eesti Televisioon (ETV) program 7 vaprat and found a degree of success in Estonia. Their most popular single, “Tramm nr 66”, sung by Uuspõld, was released in 1992 when Uuspõld was nineteen. The band folded not long after, but reformed on several occasions, performing on ETV and the 2013 August Blues Festival in Haapsalu.

After Luxury Filters broke up, Uuspõld was inspired to become an actor after watching Estonian actor Tõnu Kark perform in a stage production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. In 1994 he applied to and was accepted at the EMA Higher Drama School (now, the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre) in Tallinn, graduating in 1998. Among his graduating classmate were actors Harriet Toompere, Tiit Sukk, Veikko Täär, Liina Vahtrik, and Andero Ermel. While still a student, his course instructor Priit Pedajas offered him an engagement at the Estonian Drama Theatre. He would perform at the Estonian Drama Theatre from 1996 until 2013 in roles by Shakespeare, Ibsen, Dostoyevsky, among many others. From 2005 until 2007 he also performed for two seasons at the Vanemuine theater in Tartu and from 2009 to 2014, with partner Karl Kermes, he created the Monoteater, which staged several plays. In 2013 he developed his own theater production company called Prem Productions.

Jan Uuspõld’s first film role as an actor was in the 1999 Ervin Õunapuu directed short Kõrbekuu. His first television appearance as an actor was in the Kanal 2 comedy series Wremja in 2001. He would appear in the program as a regular until 2003. This was followed by a dual role in the Finnish YLE2 television series Siperian Nero! He would go on to appear in roles for such television series as: Rikospoliisi ei laula (2006), Ohtlik lend (2006), Kelgukoerad (2007), Brigaad 3 (2007), Kättemaksukontor (2009-2012), among others. Shortly after leaving the Estonian Drama Theatre, Uuspõld had an idea to create a comedic road movie. After presenting his idea to directors and screenwriters Rain Tolk and Andres Maimik, the three collaborated in making the 2007 comedy Jan Uuspõld läheb Tartusse (English release title: 186 Kilometers). In the film Uuspõld plays a down-on-his-luck caricature of himself, trying to hitchhike from Tallinn to Tartu to perform in a role at the Vanemuine theater.