Iliya Kostov was born in Sliven in 1954. He graduated in Bulgarian Studies from the St. St. Cyril and Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo in 1978. From 1979 to 1987 he worked as assistant director and second unit director at Boyana Feature Film Studio, and from 1987 to 1991 he was editor at the TV Feature Films Department of the Bulgarian National Television. In 1991 he set up his own production company. He has worked on various TV and radio shows. He is the author of the novels Madame Bovary from Sliven (1990) and Time for Women (2009). Iliya Kostov has written and directed several documentary films, TV fiction novels and feature films, including TapTap (1996), The Assistant (2002) and Time for Women (2007).