Graduated from the Moscow Art Theatre College in 1993 (studied under Yuri Eryomin), then joined the company of the Pushkin Theatre. Performed the roles of Augustin in One of the Last Carnival Evenings, Fernando in Story of a Stairway, Podhodtsev in The Funhouse, Nick in The Great Gatsby, the Simpleton in The Lady of the Cabaret, Octave in Skapin, John in Nobody Dies on Friday, Khlestakov in The Government Inspector, Agishin in The Marriage of Belugin, Nikolai in In the Apple of an Eye, Tim in Some Explicit Polaroids, etc.
Performed the role of Mikhail in The Silver Age at the Mossovet Theatre and the role of the Writer in Vieux Carré at the Oleg Tabakov Theatre.
Directs theatre performances since 1996. His productions at the Pushkin Theatre include Treasure Island after Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel (1996), Love and Squalor by J. D. Salinger (1998), The Government Inspector by Nikolai Gogol (2001), Puss in Boots after Charles Perrault, Lend Me a Tenor by Ken Ludwig (2005), Bullets over Broadway by Woody Allen (2007), Barefoot in the Park by Neil Simon (2010), Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, Is He Dead? by Mark Twain (2012), The Great Magic by Eduardo di Filippo (2012, Theatre Union ‘Hit of the Season’ award), The Marriage of Figaro by Beaumarchais (2014), Chamber Theatre. 100 Years (2014, Oleg Tabakov Award), Oranges & Lemons by Noël Coward (2017), Shakespeare in Love by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard (2018, Chrystal Turandot Award).
Pisarev’s productions at the Moscow Art Theatre include Leading Ladies by Ken Ludwig (2006), Magic Horseby the Presnyakov brothers (2008), The Pickwick Club after Charles Dickens (2009) and These Ghostsby Eduardo di Filippo (2010). In 2009 the production of Magic Horse received the Golden Mask Award as the best operetta and the Chrystal Turandot Award as the best production of the year 2008.
In 2017 he staged Kynaston after the play Compleat Female Stage Beauty by Jeffrey Hatcher at the Oleg Tabakov Theatre.
Worked as an assistant director of Declan Donnellan’s productions of Boris Godunov, Twelfth Night (where he also took on the role of Feste the jester) and Three Sisters (also took on the role of Kulygin).
Teaches Acting at Moscow Art Theatre College since 1999, head of Acting course since 2013.
In 2007-2010 worked as an assistant to Oleg Tabakov, artistic director of the Moscow Art Theatre.
Artistic director of the Moscow Pushkin Drama Theatre since 4 July 2010.
Since 2011 he has been a member of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for Culture and Art.
His musical theatre engagements include staging of The Sound of Music by Rogers and Hammerstein at the MDM Palace, Moscow, 2011, and staging of Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri at the Stanislavsky Theatre, 2013 — a production that was nominated for the Golden Mask award as the best director’s work in musical theatre.
At the Bolshoi theatre he staged the opera Le Nozze di Figaro by W.A. Mozart (conductor William Lacey, 2015, nominated for The Golden Mask award as the best director’s work).