Chapman

Need to know

A glamorous ‘girl next door’ who was secretly a spy now has a brand new role

Who is Anna Chapman and where is she now?

1. A glamorous Russian spy who charmed her way into elite circles in New York and London before being exposed by the FBI is the subject of a new Channel 4 documentary tonight. According to its synopsis, it is compared to the plot of a Hollywood spy movie. It promises to tell the true story of a glamorous Russian spy who infiltrated UK society and America’s corridors of power As a result, many viewers wonder where she is now.
2. Anna Chapman was secretly working for Russia’s SVR intelligence service while partying with billionaires and celebrities in Manhattan’s VIP hotspots. Born to a KGB official in Russia, she married a British citizen in 2001 to gain dual citizenship.
3. Chapman moved to New York in 2009, setting up a property business as cover while infiltrating high society. She was spotted rubbing shoulders with Wall Street executives and even economist Nouriel Roubini – nicknamed ‘Dr. Doom’ after predicting the 2008 financial crisis.
4. Behind the glamorous facade, Chapman was part of the Illegals Programme, transmitting encrypted messages to Moscow from Barnes and Noble cafés. Her mission was to gather intelligence and build networks to influence US foreign policy.
5. The FBI tracked her for years under Operation Ghost Stories before sending in an undercover agent posing as a Russian handler. When Chapman grew suspicious and tested a fake passport at a police station on her father’s advice, agents swooped.
6. She was arrested in June 2010 and held for just 12 days before being exchanged for Western spies in Vienna – including Sergei Skripal, later targeted in the Salisbury Novichok attack. Vladimir Putin claimed he “sang patriotic songs” with the returned agents at a special reception.
7. Following her return to Russia, Chapman embraced celebrity in her home country and worked as a TV presenter, model and influencer with her own fashion line.
8. Last year, Anna began a brand new job. She was appointed head of the Museum of Russian ­Intelligence. She is still active on Instagram under the name Anya Chapman.

READ THE FULL STORY: True story of ‘Russian spy next door’ who seduced her way into corridors of power

Grizz Chapman, an actor best known for his role as Grizz on NBC’s Emmy-winning comedy “30 Rock,” has died. He was 52.

Chapman’s cousin, Donte Harrison, confirmed the actor’s death on social media.

“Life gave my cousin Grizz Chapman some heavy battles, but he fought them with strength and dignity until the very end,” Harrison wrote. “A lot of people knew him as the sitcom star from 30 Rock, but we knew the man behind the screen. A good heart, good energy, and somebody who made an impact in this life.

“After years of fighting illness and dialysis, he passed peacefully in his sleep on May 22nd, 2026. I’m thankful we got time to reconnect 2 months before his passing.”

Born Mack D. Chapman on April 16, 1974, in Brooklyn, N.Y., Chapman got the name Grizz while working as a security guard at nightclubs around New York. The claim to fame of the 7-foot-tall security guard turned actor would be portraying a character that resembled himself: a towering bodyguard named Grizz.

Chapman played the mild-mannered bodyguard across 80 episodes of the wildly popular sitcom “30 Rock,” which starred Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan and Alec Baldwin. Chapman’s character was part of the entourage of Tracy Jordan (played by Morgan).

Chapman told Cracked in 2024 that landing “30 Rock” was the “hardest/easiest audition I ever had in my life.”

But it wasn’t until the second season of the show that Chapman felt he really broke through as a performer. On Episode 210, he performs a rendition of “Midnight Train to Georgia” alongside the veteran ensemble. “That showed so many levels of our talents — we got a chance to dance, we got a chance to sing, we got a chance to take direction and to be funny.”

In addition to acting in various projects, including the 2014 film “The Cobbler,” which starred Adam Sandler, and the 2016 thriller “Money Monster,” starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts, Chapman was an advocate for the National Kidney Foundation.

The actor battled high blood pressure and kidney disease and struggled with his weight for years, and in 2009, he announced he was seeking a donor for a kidney transplant. During an appearance on “The Dr. Oz Show,” the actor said, “I don’t want to go through this forever.”

Chapman told Dr. Oz that he’d coped with the news by acknowledging it was “a scary situation” but deciding to “face it one way or another.”

When Dr. Oz asked him what he wished for, the actor said, “I want to stay alive.”

Chapman spent nearly two years undergoing dialysis treatments three days a week for 4½ hours a day while filming “30 Rock” and hoping for a donor. In the process, he lost more than 150 pounds, hoping to be fit enough for the procedure. After the episode of “Dr. Oz” aired, a fan of Chapman’s, Ryan Perkins, flew from Arizona to New York to meet the actor. Perkins, then in his early 20s, knew he wanted to do something that could change someone’s life.

“I was emotional. I was excited. I wanted to scream. It was exciting to meet someone with that kind of willingness to help,” Chapman told the East Valley Tribune.

“How do you ever repay someone for something like that? You can’t. It’s not like borrowing $20 from someone and telling them you’re going to give it back. It’s something that you can never repay someone for.”