Angela Nikolau is a 33-year-old Russian rooftopper and artist known for Netflix’s Skywalkers: A Love Story. Discover her career, climbs, net worth, and her Empire State Building engagement in 2026.
Angela Nikolau is one of the most fearless and visually arresting figures on the internet. A Russian rooftopper, photographer, and artist, she has spent over a decade scaling the world’s tallest and most dangerous structures — then capturing the moment in photographs that feel equal parts terrifying and beautiful. Her global fame is built not on Hollywood sets or recording studios, but on cranes, skyscrapers, and construction sites in some of the world’s most remote cities.
In July 2026, she made worldwide headlines again — this time for climbing the antenna of New York’s Empire State Building alongside her long-term partner Ivan Beerkus, where the pair unfurled a peace banner and Beerkus proposed to her 1,454 feet above Midtown Manhattan. The stunt, which ended in their arrest, was entirely on-brand for a woman who has always lived her life at the very edge — literally.
Quick Facts About Angela Nikolau
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Full name | Angela Nikolau |
| Date of birth | June 24, 1993 |
| Age (2026) | 33 years old |
| Birthplace | Moscow, Russia |
| Profession | Rooftopper, photographer, artist, influencer |
| Net worth (est.) | $500,000 – $1 million |
| Partner | Ivan Beerkus (fiancé as of July 2026) |
| Education | Christian School of Arts; Russian State Specialized Academy of Arts |
| Known for | Skywalkers: A Love Story (Netflix, 2024), Goldin Finance 117 climb |
| Social media | 730,000+ Instagram followers; 523K+ TikTok followers |
Early Life and Family Background
Angela Nikolau was born on June 24, 1993, in Moscow, Russia, to a family deeply embedded in the world of performance and physical art. Her parents, Olga and Dmitriy Nikolau, were both circus performers, and she grew up as one of five children in a household where athleticism and creative expression were simply a way of life. That upbringing would prove foundational — shaping both her physical abilities and her instinct to turn daring acts into art.
From the age of seven, Angela trained in rhythmic gymnastics, continuing seriously until she was sixteen. The discipline gave her the strength, flexibility, and spatial awareness that would later allow her to balance on antenna tips and crouch at the edges of skyscrapers with unnerving calm. It is hard to separate the gymnast from the rooftopper — one made the other possible.
Growing up in Moscow also meant growing up in a city with skyline worth exploring. Russia has its own deep subculture of urban exploration and rooftopping, and Angela was drawn into it naturally. Her first rooftop photographs were taken across Moscow’s cityscape, a city that — with its Stalinist high-rises and Soviet-era towers — offers a particular kind of dramatic backdrop that Western cities rarely match.
Education and Creative Foundations
After completing her early schooling at public institutions, Nikolau transferred to the Christian School of Arts, where she was able to combine academic study with creative training. Following graduation, she enrolled at the Russian State Specialized Academy of Arts, one of Russia’s most prestigious fine arts institutions. She studied there for five years but ultimately left before completing her final year, choosing to commit fully to her passion for rooftopping and photography.
While still in school, she began working as an art teacher for children — a role she took on at just sixteen and which she would continue alongside her growing career. That blend of formal artistic training and hands-on teaching gave her photographs a compositional quality that set them apart from the typical rooftopping content flooding social media. Her images were not just stunts; they were considered, technically executed works of visual art.
The Climbs That Made Her Famous
Angela began sharing her rooftop photography on Instagram in May 2013, and the audience built steadily as her ascents grew more ambitious and her photographs more refined. The early images were striking enough, but everything changed in 2016 when she and Ivan Beerkus traveled to China to scale Goldin Finance 117 in Tianjin — at the time the highest active construction site in the world. The pair climbed the skyscraper and then ascended the crane mounted at its peak, photographing and filming the entire sequence. The video has been viewed more than 920,000 times on social media alone and attracted global media attention, establishing the pair as the pre-eminent rooftoppers of their generation.
In 2022, they raised the stakes again by scaling Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur — the second-tallest building in the world. The climb, documented on film, became the dramatic centrepiece of their Netflix documentary. That same year, Angela launched her first NFT collection, Freedom in the Sky, comprising fifty images drawn directly from her extreme adventures. The collection was shown at Art Basel Miami 2022 and NFT NYC 2023, and her work was included in the NFT Yearbook — a curated compendium of the year’s most significant NFT artists.
Her most recent and most widely covered stunt came on July 1, 2026, when she and Beerkus climbed the antenna of the Empire State Building in New York City. Dressed in black, the pair reached 1,454 feet above street level, unfurled a banner reading “When the power of love beats the love of power, the world knows peace” — a quote often attributed to Jimi Hendrix — and spent approximately thirty minutes at the top. Beerkus then got down on one knee and proposed. Both were taken into police custody on charges including burglary and reckless endangerment upon descending. There were no injuries.
Skywalkers: A Love Story
The Netflix documentary Skywalkers: A Love Story, directed by Jeff Zimbalist and Maria Bukhonina, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2024 and was acquired by Netflix, where it released later that year. The film drew on over 200 hours of footage captured across seven years and six countries, weaving together the couple’s most dramatic climbs with the complicated personal story of two people whose romantic and professional lives are literally inseparable — and where a breakdown in trust is not metaphorical, but potentially fatal.
The documentary brought Angela’s story to a mainstream audience far beyond the rooftopping subculture. Reviews praised the visual spectacle of the climbing sequences and the genuine emotional tension of the relationship at the film’s core. It remains one of the most watched extreme sports documentaries on the platform.
Brand Work, Media Coverage and Recognition
Beyond the climbs themselves, Angela has built a parallel career as a model and brand collaborator. She has worked with Cartier, Adidas, Calvin Klein, Kenzo, Samsung, Pandora, Jo Malone, and Formula 1 — a roster that speaks to the crossover appeal of her image, which sits somewhere between high fashion and raw adventure. Her work has appeared in The Times, The Guardian, GQ, Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, and Elle, among others.
She has also appeared in two documentaries beyond Skywalkers: the 2017 Danish film On the Edge of Freedom, in which she played the lead character, and the 2018 Slovak production Who is Next? by director Miro Drobný.
Personal Life
Angela and Ivan Beerkus have been partners both romantically and professionally for the better part of a decade. They met through the rooftopping community, with Angela initially drawn to Ivan’s more advanced skill level and the pair gradually falling into a working partnership that became a relationship. Their dynamic — equal parts creative collaboration and romantic bond — is precisely what made Skywalkers: A Love Story so compelling as a documentary subject.
As of 2026, the couple has relocated from Moscow to New York City. In a social media post earlier this year, Angela wrote candidly about the experience of rebuilding their lives in an unfamiliar city, learning to communicate in English, and finding their footing in a new environment. Their July 1 Empire State Building climb — and the proposal that came with it — confirmed that, whatever city they’re in, they remain entirely themselves.
Net Worth and Income
Angela Nikolau’s net worth is estimated at between $500,000 and $1 million, reflecting income from brand sponsorships, social media, NFT sales, modelling work, and documentary appearances. Her Instagram following of over 730,000 and TikTok audience of more than 523,000 position her as a meaningful influence in the extreme sports and lifestyle space. She has collaborated with premium global brands across fashion, technology, and automotive sectors. Her NFT venture has added a new income stream that aligns naturally with the visual and collector-driven nature of her work.
Final Thoughts
Angela Nikolau’s career defies easy categorisation. She is not a professional athlete, not quite a traditional influencer, and not a conventional artist — and yet she is clearly and seriously all three at once. What holds it together is the photographs: images of a woman at the edge of the possible, composed with genuine artistic intention, that manage to be both deeply personal and universally arresting.
At thirty-three, with a Netflix documentary behind her, a fiancé beside her, and the Empire State Building’s antenna recently beneath her feet, she shows no sign of coming down. Whatever charges she faces in New York, the story of Angela Nikolau is nowhere near its final chapter.
People Also Ask
Who is Angela Nikolau?
Angela Nikolau is a Russian rooftopper, photographer, and artist born on June 24, 1993, in Moscow. She is best known for scaling the world’s tallest buildings without safety equipment and documenting the climbs through photography. Her relationship and career with Ivan Beerkus were the subject of the 2024 Netflix documentary Skywalkers: A Love Story.
What happened at the Empire State Building in July 2026?
On July 1, 2026, Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus climbed the Empire State Building’s antenna in New York City, reaching 1,454 feet above street level. They unfurled a peace banner and Beerkus proposed to Nikolau at the top. The couple was taken into police custody on charges including burglary and reckless endangerment. There were no injuries reported.
What is the Netflix documentary Skywalkers: A Love Story?
Skywalkers: A Love Story is a feature-length documentary directed by Jeff Zimbalist and Maria Bukhonina. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2024 and was released on Netflix later that year. The film follows Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus across seven years and six countries, documenting their extreme climbs and the personal relationship at the heart of their partnership.
What is Angela Nikolau’s net worth?
Her net worth is estimated at between $500,000 and $1 million. Income sources include brand sponsorships with companies like Adidas, Calvin Klein, and Cartier; social media earnings; NFT sales; and documentary and modelling work.
Where is Angela Nikolau from?
She was born and raised in Moscow, Russia, to a family of circus performers. As of 2026, she and her fiancé Ivan Beerkus are based in New York City.
