Lars Dittmann Mikkelsen (born 6 May 1964) is a Danish actor. He has played Copenhagen mayoral election candidate Troels Hartmann in the drama series ''
The Killing'',
Charles Augustus Magnussen in the third series of ''
Sherlock'', the
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
n president Viktor Petrov in the American ''
House of Cards
A house of cards (also known as a card tower or card castle) is a structure created by stacking playing cards on top of each other, often in the shape of a pyramid. "House of cards" is also an expression that dates back to 1645 meaning a structu ...
'' on
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
, and
Grand Admiral Thrawn
Grand Admiral Thrawn (full name: Mitth'raw'nuruodo) is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. He is notable for appearing as the eponymous character in the ''Thrawn'' trilogy of novels (1991–1993) by Timothy Zahn. Thrawn is an ...
in ''
Star Wars Rebels
''Star Wars Rebels'' is an American 3D animation, 3D animated science fiction on television, science fiction television series produced by Lucasfilm Animation and set in the ''Star Wars'' universe. It takes place over a decade after ''Episode ...
''. In 2011, he won the
Reumert Prize of Honour.
Early life
Mikkelsen was born in
Gladsaxe
Gladsaxe Kommune is a municipality (Danish, ''Commune (subnational entity), kommune'') near Copenhagen in Region Hovedstaden on the island of Zealand (Denmark), Zealand (''Sjælland'') in eastern Denmark. The municipality covers an area of , and ...
near
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
. He and his younger brother, actor
Mads Mikkelsen
Mads Dittmann Mikkelsen, (; born 22 November 1965) is a Danish actor. Originally a gymnast and dancer, he rose to fame in Denmark as an actor for his roles such as Tonny in the first two films of the ''Pusher'' film trilogy (1996, 2004), Det ...
, were raised in the
Nørrebro
Nørrebro (, ) is one of the 10 official districts of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is northwest of the city centre, beyond the location of the old Northern Gate (''Nørreport''), which, until dismantled in 1856, was near the current Nørreport station ...
district.
[Transcript of Part 1 of Documentary in German, transcript in English.] After secondary school, he enlisted for military service in the
Royal Danish Army
The Royal Danish Army ( da, Hæren, fo, Herurin, kl, Sakkutuut) is the land-based branch of the Danish Defence, together with the Danish Home Guard. For the last decade, the Royal Danish Army has undergone a massive transformation of structures ...
. He then studied biology at the
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...
but gave up the course to earn his living as a
street performer in European cities with his
mime
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet standard that extends the format of email messages to support text in character sets other than ASCII, as well as attachments of audio, video, images, and application programs. Message ...
and
juggling
Juggling is a physical skill, performed by a juggler, involving the manipulation of objects for recreation, entertainment, art or sport. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling. Juggling can be the manipulation of one object o ...
acts.
Acting career
At the age of 27, he enrolled at the
National Theatre School of Denmark from which he graduated in 1995. In addition to his role in the drama series released worldwide as ''The Killing'',
he subsequently appeared in two other internationally acclaimed Danish drama series, ''Those Who Kill'' and ''Borgen III''. He also had a leading role in an episode of the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
'' as blackmailer Charles Augustus Magnussen.
. He won an
'', which was broadcast in the UK in 2019 as ''Ride Upon the Storm''.
In addition to his native Danish, Mikkelsen speaks fluent Swedish, German and English, and he has mastered various accents. He has stated that he and his brother first picked up English by listening to
records and learning the comedy sketches.
. They have been a couple since 1986 and married in 1989. They have two sons. He is the older brother of actor
.
While filming the second season of ''Ride Upon the Storm'', he went to see a priest and asked to be baptised into the
.