Ulrich Thomsen (born December 6, 1963) graduated from the Danish National School of Theatre and Contemporary Dance in 1993. Having appeared in numerous productions on stage in his native Copenhagen, he made his feature debut starring in Ole Bornedal’s 1994 indie hit, Nightwatch.
Thomsen has worked with many acclaimed directors world wide, and is one of Europe’s most sought after actors, starring in almost 100 productions.
He was first introduced internationally for his leading role as a member of Denmark’s most dysfunctional family in Thomas Vinterberg’s 1998 arthouse hit Festen (The Celebration) for which he received his first Best European Actor nomination at the European Film Academy Awards. The film won the Cannes Jury Prize among many others and cemented the impact of the Dogma era in filmmaking history.
Thomsen has consistently garnered international critical acclaim in numerous European films including, The Greatest Heroes, The Inheritance, Brothers, Adam’s Apples, Allegro, Fear Me Not and In a Better World. Among his many accolades, he was presented with the Best Actor award by the Danish Film Academy as well as receiving a variety of international awards for Greatest Heroes, Adam’s Apples, The Inheritance and Fear Me Not. For his performance in Brothers, he received his second Best European Actor nomination and won the prestigious Best Actor award at the San Sebastian Film Festival.
Thomsen’s international feature films include the box office smash Bond: The World is Not Enough, Kathryn Bigelow’s The Weight of Water, Menno Meyjes’ Max, Chen Kaige’s Killing Me Softly, Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven and Tom Tykwer’s The International. He also starred in the 1999 Academy Award® winning short film, Election Night. Thomsen’s addition international feature credits include The Rocket Post, The Zookeeper, Blue Print, Mostly Martha, Opium, Hitman, Duplicity, Tell Tale, Centurion, Season of the Witch, The Thing, The Silence, Mortdecai and star Hungarian director Janos Szasz’s The Notebook. Thomsen joined two Danish feature film in the autumn of 2014. First Summer 92 by Kasper Barfoed and later The Commune by Festen star director, Thomas Vinterberg.
On television, Thomsen guest starred on the hit series Alias, in the BBC miniseries, The Virgin Queen and in the TNT Miniseries The Company, produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Mikael Salomon.
In 2012 Ulrich Thomsen joined the cast of the True Blood-creator Alan Ball’s new tv-series Banshee for Cinemax, that ran for four seasons. Other TV appearances include, The Blacklist with James Spader, Counterpart with JK Simmons. The prestigious The New Pope directed by Oscar winner Paolo Sorrentino, starring opposite Jude Law and John Malkovich.
In 2016 Ulrich Thomsen made his first directorial debut as a writer, director and producer with In Embryo. A gritty love story new beginnings. In Embryo world premiered in Official Selection at the prestigious 2016 Shanghai International Film Festival.
His 2019 second featurefilm GUTTERBEE is a satirical black comedy that deals with identity, sausages, and the American dream.