Sanzhar Madiyev was born on August 4, 1986 in Almaty, Kazakhstan in an ordinary family. His mother is a teacher and father is a writer. In his early childhood, Sanzhar escaped from his first kindergarten. At school he took part in the performances, composed songs, painted, and took up dancing classes. When it was time to go to the University, he firstly decided to get the education in Economics. After three years of studying he decided to get the training at the Bank of Netherlands branch in Kazakhstan. He started his job as a clerk and soon became a Business Relationship Manager. Then he continued his education and got the Master Degree in Finance. Soon he realized that Art is of the main interest to him and entered the theatre department of the local Academy of Arts. For a long time there was no work, and from time to time he did commercials, but it was not enough for living. A year later, the production studio invited him for a casting. He was offered to try both a positive and negative roles as a principal cast. A few months later the shooting started. Sanzhar got the principal role of "a good guy" in this film, in which a popular Russian actor Dmitry Djuzhev became his partner. He got his next high-profile role in the movie The tale of a Pink Bunny (Skaz o Rozovom Zaitse), where he performed a tycoon's naughty and spoilt son. At the same time he kept studying filmmaking on his own. In 2010, he directed a Christmas show for the national TV channel; the show was done in a style of the Oscar award ceremony, and according to the various sources, ranked the first - second places in charts. In May 2011, Kazakhfilm Studios sent him to New York Film Academy in Los Angeles to study film directing. In November 2011, he returned to LA to continue studying in acting. Shortly before this, he started shooting in the movie Phantom Hunt in which Sanzhar starred with such Hollywood guest actors as Kristanna Loken and Armand Assante.