Eugene Hutz

Born: 1972
Where: Kiev, Ukraine

The gypsy punk bandleader made his film debut in the road movie Everything is Illuminated alongside Elijah Wood.

The son of a gypsy tap dancer mother and a butcher-cum-guitarist father, Hutz was brought up in the Ukrainian village of Striy near the Hungarian border.

When he was 14 his family - descendants of the Sirva Roma gypsy group - fled the persecution of the Communist regime.

Travelling through refugee camps in Poland, Hungary, Austria and Italy, they arrived in Vermont, USA, through a relocation programme.

In 1996, he formed the Flying F*** band which would become the celebrated gypsy collective Gogol Bordello, named after the 19th century Ukrainian author.

Hutz was orginally approached to write the music for Everything is Illuminated but the producers were so impressed they cast him as Alex.