Anna Bogomazova, known professionally as Anya Zova (born 7 April 1990), is a Russian comedian, actress, producer and former athlete, born in the Soviet Union and raised by a Ukrainian mother and Russian father. She worked in the

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority-owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. A global integrated media and entertainment company, ...

competing in their

developmental territory Development of the human body is the process of growth to maturity. The process begins with fertilization, where an egg released from the ovary of a female is penetrated by a sperm cell from a male. The resulting zygote develops through mitos ...

NXT Wrestling NXT is a developmental brand of the American professional wrestling promotion WWE, serving as a training ground for wrestlers before they move to WWE's main roster on either Raw or SmackDown. Introduced on February 23, 2010, NXT features a sep ...

, under the

ring name A ring name is a type of stage name or nickname used by an athlete such as a professional wrestler, mixed martial artist, or boxer whose real name is considered unattractive, dull, difficult to pronounce or spell, amusing for the wrong reasons ...

Anya. Bogomazova graduated Russian school and won the Russian Kickboxing Cup in 2011 with a second place. In 2020, Anya made her television debut on NBC's award-winning comedy, ''

Brooklyn Nine-Nine ''Brooklyn Nine-Nine'' is an American police procedural sitcom television series that aired on Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox, and later on NBC, from September 17, 2013, to September 16, 2021, for eight seasons and 153 episodes. Created by Dan G ...

'' and appeared on the hit CBS series TV series ''

MacGyver Angus "Mac" MacGyver is the title character and the protagonist in the TV series ''MacGyver''. He is played by Richard Dean Anderson in the MacGyver (1985 TV series), 1985 original series. Lucas Till portrays a younger version of MacGyver in Mac ...

''. In April 2022, she toured local clubs with her own comedy show about Russia and her life there.

Early life

Bogomazova was born on 7 April 1990 in Voronezh, Russia. At the age of 5, she took up

calisthenics Calisthenics (American English) or callisthenics (British English) () is a form of strength training that utilizes an individual's body weight as resistance to perform multi-joint, compound movements with little or no equipment. Calisthenics sol ...

, which she studied for seven years. Her parents insisted that she should quit because of her height. From 2003 till 2004, Anna played

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

. At the age of 14 she took up

kickboxing Kickboxing ( ) is a full-contact hybrid Martial arts, martial art and Boxing (disambiguation), boxing type based on punch (combat), punching and kicking. Kickboxing originated in the 1950s to 1970s. The fight takes place in a boxing ring, norma ...

. Her styles consist of kickboxing and

taekwondo Taekwondo (; ; ) is a Korean martial art and combat sport involving primarily kicking techniques and punching. "Taekwondo" can be translated as ''tae'' ("strike with foot"), ''kwon'' ("strike with hand"), and ''do'' ("the art or way"). In ad ...

. She eventually earned her black belt in taekwondo. She graduated from the Voronezh Cooperative Institute and

Voronezh State University Voronezh State University (, ВГУ; VSU) is one of the main universities in Central Russia, located in the city of Voronezh. The university was established in 1918 by professors evacuated from the University of Tartu in Estonia. The university ...

with the qualifications of a

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

and a

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...

in the field of professional communications.

Martial arts career

Kickboxing

Bogomazova began her career in competitive kickboxing in 2004 with Aleksei Dedov as her coach. She has placed second in the Kickboxing World Championship in 2006 and 2008. She has also placed first in the Kickboxing Russian Championship in 2008 and the Kickboxing World Cup in 2011. From 2006 through 2010 Anna was trained by legendary coach Fuad Farziev. Since November 2010, she has been training in the

USA The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

Professional wrestling career

WWE (2012–2013)

In August 2012, Bogomazova signed a developmental contract with

World Wrestling Entertainment World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority-owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. A global integrated media and entertainment company, ...

and was assigned to its developmental territory NXT Wrestling (NXT). In early 2013, she broke her arm during a training session which she claimed lead to being released from her developmental contract on 17 May 2013. She plans on suing WWE for injury and extra for damages due to having two surgeries and now she has a scar on her hand. Bogomazova filed suit against Steve Keirn Inc. and World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. d/b/a Florida Championship Wrestling in Hillsborough County, Florida Circuit Court on 8 March 2017, claiming that the defendants did not properly train other amateur wrestlers, who ran into plaintiff while she warmed-up.Hillsborough County, Florida Circuit Civil Case No. 2017CA002147 On 23 June 2017, the lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed.

Television

Her first TV role was playing Anna Rubov in the sitcom ''

'' (

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

Network) in their Season 7, Episode 6, which aired on 5 March 2020. The same year Anna played Krisitina on ''

'' (

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

Network) Season 4, Episode 5, which aired on 6 March 2020.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bogomazova, Anna 1990 births Living people Middleweight kickboxers Professional wrestling managers and valets Russian female kickboxers Russian female professional wrestlers Russian female taekwondo practitioners Voronezh State University alumni Naturalized citizens of the United States 21st-century female professional wrestlers 21st-century Russian sportswomen