Vasyl Vasylovych Ilyashenko (1935–2014) was a Soviet and Ukrainian film director, screenwriter, and writer. He was an Honored Worker of Culture of the Ukrainian SSR (1985) and an Honored Artist of Ukraine (1998).

Born on April 5, 1935, in the village of Chekhovka (at that time in the Poltava region of the Ukrainian SSR) into a peasant family.

In 1956–1958, he studied at the Kyiv Technical School for Cultural Workers. He graduated from the directing department of the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography (1965, S. Gerasimov's workshop).

Laureate of the Ukrainian Filmmakers Union Award (1981) for the book "Film Directing" (co-authored with T. Levchuk). Author of books on the history and theory of cinema: "Etudes on Cinema" (1998), "Etudes on Cinema" (1999), "The Book of Directing" (2002), "History of Ukrainian Cinema" (2004), "Theory of Meanings in World Cinema" (2008, in 5 volumes).

Author of the novel "Through the White World" (2001), poetry collections "The Leap Year Summer of the Cuckoo" (1992), The Bitter Book (1998), The Cross Book (2000), Blessed at the Feast of Life (2003), Tears of the Sun (2005), On the Hills (2010).

He taught at the Karpenko-Kary Kyiv State Institute of Theatre Arts.

He was a member of the National Union of Cinematographers of Ukraine.

He died on November 29, 2014, in Kyiv.