Director, producer. Born in Kurgan in 1976. While studying at university, he organized the youth video studio "Most"; on its basis the Kurgan television company "Region-45" was created, of which Kukushkin became director. In 2005 he moved to Moscow; he worked as a director's assistant and second director on TV series. In 2009 he graduated from the German Sidakov School with a degree in directing. The film "Inadequate People" (dir.

Roman Karimov, Grand Prix of the "Window to Europe" festival, 2010) became his debut project as a producer. His next two producing works participated in the Kinotavr competition: "Shattered" (2011, dir. Roman Karimov) and "The Dead Have Luck" (2017, dir. Vadim Valiullin). In 2017 he released the Russian-American-Spanish film "The Tree of Bodies" directed by Thomas Dunn.