Tartu, Estonian SSR, USSR [now Estonia] | 1976-09-26

Kersti Heinloo (born September 26, 1976) is an Estonian stage, film and television actress who began her career in radio. Born in Tartu, Kersti Heinloo received her secondary education at the Pärnu Koidula Gymnasium, graduating in 1994. From 1995 until 1996, she studied radio direction at the Tallinn Pedagogical University (now, Tallinn University) before applying and being accepted to the performing arts department of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre in Tallinn, where she graduated from in 2000. Among her graduating classmates were actors Maarja Jakobson, Margus Prangel, Eva Püssa, Katrin Pärn, Tambet Tuisk, Piret Simson and directors Urmas Lennuk, Tiit Ojasoo and Vahur Keller. From 2005 to 2006, she took a one-year course in motion picture production at the Brighton Film School in the U.K. In 2000, Heinloo began a five year engagement at the Vanemuine theatre in Tartu; she made her stage debut in a production of Henry Fielding's The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. She would perform in a variety of roles in works by such international playwrights and authors as: William Shakespeare, Mikhail Bulgakov, Roberto Zucco, Jerry Bock, Emily Brontë, Anton Chekhov, August Strindberg, Henrik Ibsen and Willy Russell, among others. Roles in works by Estonian authors and playwrights at the Vanemuine include: Mati Unt, August Gailit, Juhan Smuul, Johann Voldemar Jannsen, Jaan Kaplinski, Urmas Vadi, Loone Ots, Ivar Põllu, Kauksi Ülle and others. For two years after leaving the Vanemuine, Heinloo was a freelance actress. In 2007, she began an engagement as an actress at the Estonian Drama Theatre (Eesti Draamateater) where she made her stage debut in the role of Annikki in Antti Tuuri's A River Flows Through the City. Other prominent roles at the Estonian Drama Theatre were in works by Lauri Lagle, Anton Chekhov, Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams, Enda Walsh, Madis Kõiv, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Eugene O'Neill and Andrus Kivirähk. Heinloo has also performed onstage at the Tallinn City Theatre, Tartu New Theatre, MTÜ Tuulekell and Kell Kümme theatres.