Iliya Raev is a Bulgarian theater and cinema actor. He was born on February 23, 1940. He graduated from the National Academy for Theatre and Film Art, Sofia, Bulgaria with a degree in "acting" in the class of Professor Zhelcho Mandadzhiev. There he met his future wife Baroness Natalia Bardskaya who is a descendant of Russian emigrants "white guards". He worked in the Haskovo Drama Theatre since 1964 to 1967, then at the Drama Theatre "Sofia" until 1990, then passes into Little City Theatre "Off the Channel". In 2008 he became director of the Dramatic Theatre "Vasil Drumev" in Shumen. He has two daughters - Vesselina and Alexandra.