From the age of eleven Maxim Isaev attended an arts school where his teachers included members of Leningrad’s renowned Hermitage art group. In 1980 he entered the industrial graphics department of the Leningrad Serov Arts School (today the St Petersburg Roerich Fine Arts School).
In 1986 he met the acclaimed practical joker and theoretician Boris Ponizovsky and became a member of his legendary theatre company DA-NET (YES-NO). Under the guidance of Ponizovsky, in 1989 together with the artists Pavel Semchenko and Vadim Vasiliev he founded the AKHE group of which he is still a member today. In 2003 the production Sine Loco was awarded Russia’s national theatre prize the Golden Mask in the category “Best Innovation”. He has been shown at many Leningrad-St Petersburg exhibitions, and with AKHE in particular he has appeared at all major theatre festivals in Russia and abroad.
Since 2009 he has worked with the Mariinsky Theatre.
