Netflix's 'Skywalkers' Stars Face Eight Charges After Empire State Building Proposal Stunt
They are not two anonymous thrill-seekers who wandered onto a rooftop. Angela Nikolau, 33, and Ivan Kuznetsov, 32 — known to millions of followers as Ivan Beerkus — are the couple at the heart of Netflix's 2024 documentary "Skywalkers: A Love Story." And the engagement they staged more than 1,400 feet above Midtown Manhattan has now turned into something the film never covered: an eight-count criminal case moving through Manhattan Criminal Court.
This was no spur-of-the-moment climb. According to police, the pair slept inside the Empire State Building on the night of Tuesday, June 30, then made their move before dawn. Security cameras captured them reaching the 102nd floor at around 5 a.m. on Wednesday, July 1, where investigators say they broke through a locked door to reach the building's broadcast antenna and began scaling the spire.
Dressed in black and wearing masks, the two climbed to the needle-top of the skyscraper — roughly 1,454 feet from the street — and stayed there for several minutes as their cameras rolled. At the summit they unfurled a black banner carrying a line adapted from a Jimi Hendrix quote: "When the power of love beats the love of power, the world knows peace." Then Beerkus dropped to one knee and proposed. Nikolau said yes, thousands of feet above the city.
What looked serene from above triggered a heavy emergency response below. Officers from the NYPD's Emergency Service Unit reached the scene at about 12:51 p.m., and the building's broadcast antenna had to be powered down for roughly 30 minutes so responders could safely approach the climbers. In body-camera footage later shared by Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, an officer is heard telling the pair flatly, "You can't be up here," before taking them into custody.
The stunt has put the Empire State Building's security under fresh scrutiny, with one tourist pointing to a possible access point the couple may have used. Netflix moved quickly to distance itself: the climb was not filmed in any official connection with the streamer or the documentary — though the company did post a promo for Skywalkers on social media as the images went viral.
This is where the fairy tale gives way to the part still unfolding. Instead of celebrating their engagement, Nikolau and Beerkus spent their first night as an engaged couple in separate holding cells. On Thursday, July 2, they were arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on a stack of counts: burglary, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, criminal tampering, criminal trespass, possession of burglar's tools, disorderly conduct and a violation of local law — eight charges in all, several of them felonies.
Neither entered a plea. The judge ordered supervised release, noting it would be handled "at a low level," and set the next court date for August 24. The couple's defense attorney, Jason Krinsky, argued that prosecutors had "overcharged" the case, framing the whole episode as "a message of love" rather than a crime.
The legal exposure is real. Burglary and reckless endangerment are felonies under New York law, and it is the burglary theory — unlawfully entering and remaining with intent — that lifts this well beyond a simple trespassing ticket. What happens on August 24 will decide whether the case ends in a plea deal, reduced charges, or something heavier for two foreign nationals currently listed at an address in East Orange, New Jersey. If the couple seemed unshaken by any of it, their exit said so: moments after leaving court, Nikolau and Beerkus were photographed kissing on the steps, court paperwork still in hand.
