Sofie Gråbøl

Sofie Gråbøl
Gråbøl at the Scandinavia Show in London in 2011
Born	Anne Sofie Gråbøl (1968-07-30) 30 July 1968 (age 48) Frederiksberg, Denmark
Nationality	Danish
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1986–present
Known for	Detective Sarah Lund in Forbrydelsen
Awards	5 Robert Awards 2 Bodil Awards BAFTA Award Nominated for International Emmy Award (2008)

Sofie Gråbøl (Danish pronunciation: [sofiːˀə ˈɡ̊ʁɔb̥øl]; born 30 July 1968) is a Danish actress. She has starred in a series of films, Her breakthrough role was in the 1986 Danish film directed by Astrid Henning-Jensen, Early Spring, playing the lead role in the film version of Tove Ditlevsen's novel Barndommens gade at 17. On television she has starred in Taxa and Nikolaj og Julie.

Gråbøl had become known in Denmark for playing emotional roles, but she achieved international fame as a detective—the cool and distant lead character Inspector Sarah Lund in all three series of Forbrydelsen—The Killing—played on BBC4 with great success, winning a BAFTA award, and bringing Gråbøl celebrity status in the UK.

Gråbøl resides in Copenhagen where she has lived all her life. Both her parents, father Kaj Fladhede Gråbøl and mother Mette Koustrup were architects. She has an older brother Neil Gråbøl who is a director. Gråbøl's father left her mother when her mother was pregnant with Gråbøl and she was brought up by her mother. Her mother remarried a Maoist architect and for a time they lived in a commune. Gråbøl divorced her husband the film director Jacob Thuesen in 2006 and has two children by him, a son Bror who was 10 and a daughter Gudrun who was 13 years old in July 2014.

In the early years of her career she studied theology and worked in a bookstore. Responding to a newspaper advertisement at the age of 17, she was given the role of a nude artist's model in Oviri, a film about Paul Gauguin with Donald Sutherland. Despite having had no formal training, and only entering acting on the encouragement of her mother, she has worked continuously.

She said, "I thought it would be like a summer holiday job ...then one film led to another and suddenly I was an actor and I never really felt that I had made the decision ... I felt at home in the language of acting."" Her breakthrough role was in the 1986 Danish film directed by Astrid Henning-Jensen, Early Spring.