Mikael Persbrandt

MIKAEL PERSBRANDT

Mikael was born in Jakobsberg outside Stockholm. His interest in acting started when working as an extra in Ingmar Bergman's staging of William Shakespeare's "King Lear."

In the early 1990s, Mikael starred in the immensely popular Swedish TV series, "Rederiet" ("The Shipping Company.") which led to other roles in various TV productions. But it was In 1997 when Persbrandt starred as the tough detective, Gunvald Larsson, he received his major break-through. "Beck" was not only a major hit in Sweden but in Germany as well - and (as of 2022) consists of 46 theatrical and television movies based on the characters created by authors Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöo.

In 2005, Mikael received the highly coveted Ingmar Bergman award from the Guldbagge Awards and in 2006 he earned Best Actor nominations from both the Bodil (Denmark) and Guldbagge Awards for his performance in Simon Staho's "Bang Bang Orangutang." He also starred in Staho's "Day and Night," which won the Chicago International Film Festival's Silver Hugo Award for Best Ensemble Acting.

He starred in IFC Films' "Everlasting Moments," for which he earned the 2009 Guldbagge Award for Best Actor. Mikael's other work includes starring roles in the Swedish films "The Hypnotist", the "Hamilton" series, "Någon annanstans i Sverige" (for which he received a 2011 Guldbagge nomination), "Stockholm East," and "Day and Night. He earned another Guldbagge Award in 2014 for Best Actor in Kjell-Åke Andersson's "Nobody Owns Me".

Mikael Persbrandt became internationally known for his starring role in the Academy Award winning foreign feature, "In A Better World," directed by Susanne Bier. His performance earned him a 2011 European Film Award nomination for Best Actor. Some other international work includes the final installment of Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies, the drama "Someone You Love," which took home the Audience Award for Best International Film at the Los Angeles Film Festival and the critically acclaimed feature "The Salvation," Some of his recent roles can be seen in the Netflix success "Sex Education" and "The Kingdom Exodus" directed by Lars von Trier, for which he received the 2023 Robert Award nomination for Best leading male actor in a TV series.

Most recently Mikael portrayed the former UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld in Per Fly's political and acclaimed thriller Hammarskjöld, for which Persbrandt received fantastic praise and reviews. The feature film has also become one of the most viewed in the cinemas in the Nordics during 2024.

Mikael also has an extended theatre background with Swedish productions such as "Three Sisters" and "Death of a Salesman" at the Plaza Theatre, "Mr. Puntila and His Man Matti," "The Good Person of Szechwan" and "Long Day's Journey Into Night" at the Royal Dramatic Theatre. Among his other appearances at the Royal Dramatic Theatre mention can be made of "Maria Stuart" (directed by Ingmar Bergman,) "Don Juan," "The Wild Duck," "Miss Julie" and recently "The Sea Gull." In 2012 he became the owner of the private theatre Maximteatern in Stockholm where he also has participated in several successful plays such as "The Dance of Death", "MacBeth" and the latest critically acclaimed play "Så enkel är kärleken" in 2022.