Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

Nikolaj William Coster-Waldau is a Danish actor born on July 27, 1970, in Rudkøbing, Denmark. He gained initial recognition in his home country through his breakthrough role in the 1994 film Nightwatch. Internationally, he is best known for portraying Jaime Lannister in the HBO fantasy drama series Game of Thrones, a role that earned him two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. Beyond his acting career, he serves as a United Nations Development Programme Goodwill Ambassador, focusing on issues such as climate change and gender equality.

Raised mainly by his mother, a librarian, Coster-Waldau grew up in the village of Tybjerg in southern Zealand alongside two older sisters. He was baptized and confirmed as a Lutheran in the Danish National Church during his youth. From 1989 to 1993, he trained at the Danish National School of Performing Arts in Copenhagen. Later in life, he discovered following a DNA test that his biological father was Kjeld Vejrup, a television producer and former principal of The European Film College.

Coster-Waldau made his stage debut as Laertes in Hamlet at the Betty Nansen Theater. Following his success in Nightwatch, he worked across Scandinavia and Europe, co-writing and acting in Wildside, starring in Misery Harbour, and making his British film debut in Bent. He launched his American film career in 2001 playing Medal of Honor recipient Gary Gordon in Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down. Over the following decade, he appeared in films such as Enigma, Kingdom of Heaven, Wimbledon, and Firewall, and played an immortal detective in the television series New Amsterdam.

From 2011 to 2019, Coster-Waldau played Jaime Lannister throughout the run of Game of Thrones, receiving nominations for Screen Actors Guild, Critics' Choice, Saturn, and People's Choice awards. Concurrently, he took on leading roles in a diverse array of international films. His film credits during this era include Headhunters, the box-office success Mama, Oblivion, A Thousand Times Good Night, A Second Chance, Gods of Egypt, Small Crimes, 3 Things, Shot Caller, Domino, and The Silencing. He also starred in The Day We Died, a film based on the 2015 Copenhagen shootings.

In addition to acting, Coster-Waldau launched the production company Ill Kippers in 2019 and has served as a global spokesperson for L'Oréal Paris Men Expert since 2018. On television, he was cast to portray William the Conqueror in the series King & Conqueror, serving as an executive producer and directing an episode. In 2024, he hosted the documentary series An Optimist's Guide to the Planet, which profiled innovative solutions to climate change.

Coster-Waldau married Greenlandic actress and singer Nukâka in 1997, and the couple resides in Copenhagen with their two daughters. A supporter of the Danish Red Cross since 2003, Coster-Waldau has engaged in extensive international advocacy work. As a UNDP Goodwill Ambassador since 2016, he has documented global warming in Greenland and the Maldives, supported female empowerment initiatives in Kenya and Rwanda, and helped launch environmental sustainability projects such as The Lion's Share fund.