a bandit. At the same time Okhlobystin took part in theatrical productions. On February 16, 1996, in the Moscow Art Theater premiered a theatre piece based on his play "The Villain, or Cry of the Dolphin" staged by Mikhail Efremov. In the same Moscow Art Theater, a second theatre piece of Okhlobystin was staged: "Maximilian the Stylite", in 1999 the director Roman Kachanov adapted the play about the new-born seer for film and released it under the title of "Maximilian". In the late 1990s, Ivan wrote for the magazine "Stolitsa" but soon left the publication, because as he said, it turned into a "brothel", then worked in the staff of the weekly "Vesti". In 1999 Ivan Okhlobystin acted in the popular crime-comedy 8 ½ $ directed by Grigori Konstantinopolsky together with Fyodor Bondarchuk. Work in the cinema continued in 2000 with the cult film Demobbed, the script to which Okhlobystin wrote in co-authorship with the film's director Kachanov; the plot of the film was partly based on Okhlobystin's own memories of service in the army. In 2001, based on his own screenplay, the same director shot one more comedy - Down House. In addition, he was the screenwriter of the philosophical drama Garbage Man (2001) directed by Georgi Shengelia. Between 2010 and 2016 he played the cynical head of the therapy department Andrey Bykov, in the medical sitcom Interns which aired on TNT. In 2017 he starred in comedy-drama Bird about a rock musician who becomes friends with a girl suffering from tuberculosis. Political and religious views Okhlobystin became popular in the late 1990s but, following a religious conversion, withdrew to a monastery and became a Russian Orthodox priest. Patriarch Kirill removed Okhlobystin from the priesthood in February 2010, banning him wearing priestly vestments and the cross. In early 2010, Ivan resumed his entertainment career. Later that year he was named the creative director of Euroset, Russia's largest handset retailer. On 5 September 2011 he announced that he would run for President of Russia in 2012 through the "Sky Coalition", but later gave up the idea, citing the opinion of the Russian Orthodox Church. Appearing in RTVi's (Echo of Moscow's) Without Fools broadcast on 2 December 2012, Okhlobystin declared himself to be a "national-patriot" and claimed to "know" that "in the year when the head of State and the head of Church in Russia will both die", he will become