Joel Kinnaman

Charles Joel Nordström Kinnaman is a Swedish-American actor who gained recognition in Sweden before establishing an international career in film and television. He first earned widespread notice in his home country through the crime film Easy Money and the Johan Falk film series. Internationally, he is widely recognized for his television roles as Detective Stephen Holder in The Killing, Takeshi Kovacs in Altered Carbon, Governor Will Conway in House of Cards, and astronaut Ed Baldwin in For All Mankind. On the big screen, he has portrayed Alex Murphy in the 2014 reboot of RoboCop and Rick Flag in the superhero feature films Suicide Squad and The Suicide Squad.

Born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden, Kinnaman holds dual citizenship in Sweden and the United States. His Swedish mother worked as a therapist, while his American father was a Vietnam War deserter from a Midwest family with Irish and Scottish heritage; his maternal grandmother was of Ukrainian Jewish background. Raised alongside five sisters, including actress Melinda Kinnaman, he grew up bilingual, speaking Swedish with his mother and English with his father. As a youth, he spent a year in Texas as an exchange student. Following high school, he funded extensive international travels throughout South America and Southeast Asia by taking various jobs, including working on a beer factory line, sweeping roofs in Norway, and managing a bar in the French Alps.

Kinnaman made his acting debut as a child in the 1990 Swedish soap opera Storstad before stepping away from the craft for several years. He resumed acting in 2002, appearing in films such as Hannah med H and God Save the King while pursuing formal studies. After graduating from the Malmö Theatre Academy in 2007, he worked with the Gothenburg City Theatre and drew media attention for playing Raskolnikov in a stage production of Crime and Punishment. His breakthrough came with his performance in the 2010 film Easy Money, which brought him international exposure and won him a Guldbagge Award for Best Actor.

To build his international career, Kinnaman secured representation in the United States and made his foreign film debut in the Moscow-set thriller The Darkest Hour. Shortly after, he landed a main role as Detective Stephen Holder in the crime drama series The Killing, which ran for four seasons. He subsequently appeared in Hollywood films, including Safe House, Lola Versus, the lead role in the 2014 remake of RoboCop, Run All Night, and Child 44. His profile grew further when he was cast as Rick Flag in the 2016 film Suicide Squad, a role he later reprised in the 2021 sequel, The Suicide Squad.

Beginning in 2016, Kinnaman expanded his work across multiple streaming platforms. He portrayed Governor Will Conway in the American series House of Cards and played the lead character Takeshi Kovacs in the sci-fi drama Altered Carbon. He also starred in the action series Hanna and took on the role of astronaut Ed Baldwin in the space drama For All Mankind starting in 2019. Additional projects include roles in films such as The Informer, The Secrets We Keep, and Brothers by Blood, as well as a recurring part in the fourth season of the drama series In Treatment.

In his personal life, Kinnaman underwent surgery prior to filming Altered Carbon to correct pectus excavatum, a condition affecting his chest. He was married to Swedish tattoo artist Cleo Wattenström from 2015 to 2018. He later began a relationship with Swedish-Australian model Kelly Gale, and the couple married in 2024.