Mikael Persbrandt
One of Scandinavia’s most celebrated actors, Mikael Persbrandt, discovered his passion for acting on the set of Ingmar Bergman’s ‘King Lear’.
His major breakthrough came in 1997 when he starred as the tough detective Gunvald Larsson in the hit series ‘Beck’ (Filmlance International). This wasn’t just a success in Sweden but also in Germany, and as of 2022, it has spawned 46 theatrical and television movies based on the original characters. In 2005, he won the highly prestigious Ingmar Bergman award at the Guldbagge Awards and in 2006 he received Best Actor nominations from both the Bodil (Denmark) and Guldbagge Awards for his performance in Simon Staho’s ‘Bang Bang Orangutang’.
In 2009, he won the Guldbagge Award for Best Actor for his role in IFC Films’ ‘Everlasting Moments’. His other Scandinavian work includes starring in ‘The Hypnotist’ (Dir. Lasse Hallström), the ‘Hamilton’ series (for which he received a 2011 Guldbagge nomination), ‘Stockholm East’ (Dir. Simon Kaijser) and ‘Day and Night’ (Dir. Simon Staho). He won another Guldbagge Award in 2014 for Best Actor in Kjell-Åke Andersson’s ‘Nobody Owns Me’. Internationally, he first gained recognition for his role in the Academy Award-winning international film ‘In a Better World’ (Dir. Susanne Bier). His performance earned him a European Film Award nomination for Best Actor. He later had major supporting roles in Peter Jackson’s ‘The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies’ (Warner Bros.), the critically acclaimed ‘The Salvation’ (Dir. Kristian Levring) starring Mads Mikkelsen, and the Netflix feature ‘The Siege of Jadotville’ (Dir. Richie Smyth), where he starred opposite Jamie Dornan and Mark Strong.
Mikael’s recent work includes the Netflix hit series ‘Sex Education’ and Lars von Trier’s ‘The Kingdom Exodus’. For the latter, he received a 2023 Robert Award nomination for Best Leading Male Actor in a TV Series. Other credits include Guy Ritchie’s ‘King Arthur: Legend of the Sword’ (Warner Bros.), Fede Alvarez’s ‘The Girl in the Spider’s Web’ (Sony) alongside Claire Foy, David Dobkin’s comedy ‘Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga’ (Netflix) with Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams, and ‘Alone in Berlin’ (Dir. Vincent Perez), starring Brendan Gleeson and Emma Thompson.
More recently, Mikael can also be seen portraying the former UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld in Per Fly’s acclaimed political thriller ‘Hammarskjöld’, and The Mule in the second season of ‘Foundation’ (Apple+).