Ain Mäeots

Ain Mäeots (born December 25, 1971) is an Estonian stage, film, and television actor and stage, film, and television director and producer.

Ain Mäeots' first film role as an actor was a small role in the 2000 Mare Raidma directed short Lunastus, for Faama Film and Eesti Televisioon. In 2005, he appeared in his first feature-length film as Lembitu in the Kaaren Kaer directed comedy Malev; a skewed interpretation of Estonia's history set in the year 1208. In 2007, he made a cameo appearance in the Rain Tolk and Andres Maimik directed comedy Jan Uuspõld läheb Tartusse (English release title: 186 Kilometers), in which Estonian actor Jan Uuspõld plays a down-on-his-luck caricature of himself, trying to hitchhike from Tallinn to Tartu to perform in a role at the Vanemuine theater.

In 2008, Mäeots made his debut as a film director with the Exitfilm biography Taarka, based on the play of the same name by Kauksi Ülle about the difficult life of Seto folk singer Hilana Taarka. Taarka has the distinction of being the first feature-length film in the Seto dialect. Mäeots also made a brief appearance in the film in the role of a villager. Taarka won the 2008 Estonian Cultural Endowment Debut Award.