Ilya Kulikov was born and grew up in Moscow. In 2004 he graduated from the Faculty of Sociology, Economics and Law of Moscow State Pedagogical University. In 2005, the editing faculty of the Moscow Institute of Television and Radio Broadcasting "Ostankino". He began his creative activity with translating scripts of American films into Russian.

Later he worked as an editor and author of documentaries, and only then came to television and theatrical cinema. He became famous after the NTV channel aired the television series "Glukhar". Today he is one of the most sought-after screenwriters in Russia, whose projects always gather high audience share figures.