Pål Sverre Valheim Hagen

Pål Sverre Hagen
Pål Sverre Hagen (2010)
Born	Pål Sverre Valheim Hagen (1980-11-06) 6 November 1980 (age 36) Stavanger, Norway
Alma mater	Norwegian National Academy of Theatre
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2003–present
Family	Roar Hagen

Pål Sverre Valheim Hagen (born 6 November 1980), commonly known as Pål Sverre Hagen, is a Norwegian stage and screen actor. He appeared in the hit Norwegian film Max Manus and played Thor Heyerdahl in the Oscar-nominated 2012 film Kon-Tiki.

Pål Hagen was born in Stavanger, Norway, the son of Roar Hagen, a Norwegian cartoonist who has long been associated with Norway's largest daily, VG. He lived in Jåtten, a neighborhood in the city of Stavanger in southwestern Norway. When he was eight, his family moved to Østlandet, and by the age of 19 he was living in Nesodden, near Oslo. He attended Romerike folkehøgskole for a year, then studied at the Norwegian National Academy of Theatre in Oslo from 2000 to 2003.

In July 2000, after getting accepted to the Academy of Theatre, he was interviewed by the Aftenbladet. He described himself as being from Stavanger in southwestern Norway, and spoke in a Stavanger dialect. He had studied drama in upper secondary school and auditioned unsuccessfully for the Academy of Theatre a year earlier. He tried again in 2000, and was invited to try for a third time, in which he succeeded.

His stage debut was in 2003 in Frode Grytten's Bikubesong (Beehive Song) at Det Norske Teatret in Oslo.

After Bikubesong, he played many parts at the same theater, including leading roles in Herr Bima og herr Bramati by Tord Akerbæk (2003) and Skråninga by Carl Frode Tiller (2004).

Hagen went on to play the title roles in Anton Chekhov's Ivanov and in Raskolnikov, based on Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, both at Hålogaland Teater. He said that playing Raskolnikov had been “extremely dark and extremely difficult,” and that he had had to take six months off after the end of the play's run to “recharge my batteries.”