Natasha Shliapnikoff was born in Harbin, China. Her father was an engineer and her mother an accountant, both were Russian immigrants. Then, in June of 1966, Natasha and her parents had to make another journey – this time, to San Francisco, California. Life in America was also challenging – another language to be learned, new jobs to be found – the family struggled, but once again, succeeded. Natasha’s father and mother found employment, bought a home and life began to take a steady course. Natasha grew up in San Francisco. She graduated from Lowell High School. She continued her education at San Francisco State University, majoring in business. Natasha produced their annual conference and television screenings, developed their budget, created a media campaign, scheduled various celebrities, and worked with most of the major studios. Natasha produced the welcome for Pope John Paul’s visit to Texas in 1987. This was an unforgettable event for Natasha, as she received a private audience with John Paul II and had the rare opportunity to speak with him in the Russian language. A few years later, she co-wrote, co-created, and produced G.L.O.W – a popular female wrestling show, which aired on independent television stations in the United States and several foreign markets. Paramount Television became another client of Natasha’s. She produced three large-scale events at Paramount’s largest sound stages, featuring “The Solid Gold” dancers and Motown performances by various stars – Gloria Gaynor, The Temptations and Marilyn Mc Coo and Billy Davis. In 1981 Natasha moved to Washington DC to work as a consultant with INTV in their headquarters office. It was a challenging consulting assignment, which lasted for 10 years. While in Washington, Natasha married Shelton J. Merrill, a consultant to Delaware Public Television, and on May 26, 1983 their daughter Katia was born. The family moved to San Francisco, California. Within a few years, the marriage ended in divorce. In 1988, Natasha relocated to Los Angeles with her daughter and continued to work as a consultant to INTV and began to represent several other clients. Through her media consulting work, she was invited to the world premiere of a Russian/German co-produced film entitled “At The Close of Night” – which was the first Soviet film ever bought by a major studio (Twentieth Century Fox). The film was directed by renowned director Rodion Nahapetov. Natasha was very impressed by this film and wanted to meet the filmmaker, who created this masterpiece. He had been invited to Los Angeles from Russia to promote his film with the foreign media. Natasha and Rodion met and began to discuss how they could collaborate on various film projects. They fell in love, married, and also became working partners.
