Alexey V. Zinov was born in 1973 in St. Petersburg. In 1996 he graduated from the St. Petersburg State University majoring in Japanese philology. After graduation, he received a Japanese government scholarship and came to Japan to study at Hokkaido University, where he specialized in ancient Japanese literature. In 1998 he began his career as a professional Japanese-Russian translator. In 2005 he won the Grand Prix at the 5th Shizuoka International Translation Competition. He translated Mariko Koike's A Cappella, for JLPP.