Tjitske Jacoba Reidinga (born 20 February 1972) is a Dutch actress and comedian. Reidinga began her career on stage and acted in numerous plays. She won a Colombina award for her role in ''

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' is a play by Edward Albee first staged in October 1962. It examines the complexities of the marriage of a middle-aged couple, Martha and George. Late one evening, after a university faculty party, they receive ...

'' in 2002. She made her screen debut in 1996. Her first major film role was as "Jet" in '' Ja Zuster, Nee Zuster'' (2002). She is probably known best for her role as 'Claire' in the successful Dutch series '' Gooische vrouwen''.

Early life

She was born in

Leeuwarden Leeuwarden (; fy, Ljouwert, longname=yes /; Town Frisian: ''Liwwadden''; Leeuwarder dialect: ''Leewarden'') is a city and municipality in Friesland, Netherlands, with a population of 123,107 (2019). It is the provincial capital and seat of the ...

, The Netherlands, but grew up in Africa. Her parents moved to

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

shortly after they got together. Her father who had just graduated from

Academie Minerva Academie Minerva is a Dutch art academy. The academy was founded in 1798 in Groningen as a school for arts, architecture, construction engineering, and seamanship.Dijk, F. van (1998) ''Leraren van de Academie Minerva. Een keuze uit twee eeuwen k ...

, an

art school An art school is an educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, including fine art – especially illustration, painting, photography, sculpture, and graphic design. Art schools can offer elementary, secondary, post-seco ...

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...

, found a job at an

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Kampala Kampala (, ) is the capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,680,000 and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division, and Ruba ...

. They moved back to the Netherlands to flee

Idi Amin Idi Amin Dada Oumee (, ; 16 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. He ruled as a military dictator and is considered one of the most brutal despots in modern w ...

's reign of terror. Her mother was

pregnant Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring develops (gestation, gestates) inside a woman, woman's uterus (womb). A multiple birth, multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins. Pregnancy usually occur ...

at the time, and a few months later she was born in the Frisian

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

. After she was born her parents wanted to go back to Africa, and the three went to

Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast ...

where she lived until the age of 8. She remembered it as a beautiful country with a glittering lake (

Lake Nyasa Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, is an African Great Lake and the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system, located between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. It is the fifth largest fre ...

), where she could play freely. Her brother Hesling was born there and a few years later they returned to the Netherlands. She had a hard time trying to adjust herself to the cold and crowded country where she was born.

Becoming an actress

Ever since she was a little girl she knew she wanted to be an actress. Her parents had always fully supported their daughter's dream. Strengthened by her parents confidence, she never considered the possibility her dream wouldn't come true. If so she'd have quite a problem, having nothing in reserve. The only moment she had her doubts was at the

academy An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...

. She noticed her teachers did not share her parents' trust. They had no idea what to make of her and as a result she had to do the year all over again. Though being very disappointed, she was strong an resilient and finally graduated in 1997. On her time at the Amsterdamse Toneelschool she commented: "''Op de Toneelschool word je klaargestoomd om de keiharde praktijk aan te kunnen. Maar na m'n afstuderen heb ik de praktijk eigenlijk als een stuk makkelijker ervaren dan de opleiding.''" ("At the academy you are crammed for the real thing, but after I graduated I actually found my training a lot harder than acting as a job.")

Career

Theatre

After her graduation she made a flashy start on stage at ''RO Theater'', one of the major theatrical companies in the Netherlands, in the play "De ziekte die jeugd heet". Since then she has appeared in almost twenty different plays. One of those was 2001 production of ''

'' by Hummelinck Stuurman. For the latter she received a Colombina award for "Best Female Supporting Role" as child-wife ''Honey'' in 2002.

Theatre credits

Film

Her first role was a

walk-on Walk On may refer to: Music * ''Walk On'', a 1994 album by Boston, and its title song Albums * ''Walk On'' (Boston album), 1994 * ''Walk On'' (John Hiatt album), 1995 * ''Walk On'' (Randy Johnston album), 1992 *''Walk On'', a 2007 album by ...

in the 1996 production De Zeemeerman. Later she appeared in a few more feature films such as " Ja Zuster, Nee Zuster" (2000 Pieter Kramer), " Kees de Jongen" (2003

André van Duren André van Duren (born 20 June 1958) is a Dutch film director. Career His 1992 film ''Heading for England'' won the Dutch Film Critics Award at the Netherlands Film Festival. In 2000, he directed the film '' Mariken'' which is based on Pet ...

), " De Passievrucht" (2003 Maarten Treurniet) and " Ellis in Glamourland" (2004 Pieter Kramer).

Film credits

Television

She is seen weekly in

Children's television series Children's television series (or children's television shows) are television programs designed for children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run during the early evenin ...

Klokhuis (

NPS NPS may refer to: Organizations * National Park Service, U.S. * National Pension System, India * National Pension Service, Korea * National Phobics Society, UK charity * National Piers Society, UK charity * National Poetry Slam, competition * N ...

) as "prinsesje Petronella", as well as "dochter konijn" ("daughter rabbit" -being the daughter of mother rabbit (

Loes Luca Louise "Loes" Diana Wilhelmina Catharina Luca (born 18 October 1953) is a Dutch actress, singer and comedian. She began her career in the 1980s as a stage actress and singer in various musicals. She later started a successful film and television c ...

). She also seen in "FIT" ( IDTV), "Spangen", "Ibbeltje" ( BOS BROS), "De Band" (

VARA Vara or VARA may refer to: Geography *Vara (river), in Liguria, Italy * Vara Parish, former municipality in Tartu County, Estonia * Vara, Estonia, village in Peipsiääre Parish, Tartu County, Estonia * Vara Municipality, municipality in western S ...

) and "Keyzer en de Boer Advocaten" (

NCRV NCRV (Nederlandse Christelijke Radio Vereniging) (English: Dutch Christian Radio Association) was a public radio and television broadcaster in the Netherlands, mostly transmitting on NPO 1 and NPO 2. On 1 January 2014, NCRV merged with KRO to for ...

KRO KRO, or (Catholic Radio Broadcasting), was a Dutch public broadcasting organization founded on 23 April 1925. Broadly Catholic in its spiritual outlook, KRO broadcast the bulk of its television output on the NPO 1 channel. KRO was also responsi ...

). She is without a doubt best known for her starring role in the successful television series " Gooische Vrouwen" (

Endemol Endemol B.V. was a Dutch-based media company that produced and distributed multiplatform entertainment content. The company annually produced more than 15,000 hours of programming across scripted and non-scripted genres, including drama, reality ...

Television credits

Personal life

Whilst in the academy in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

she got to know actor Vincent Croiset, whom she is now with for ten years. They have two children together, twins Foppe and Klaas. They are not married but have plans to do so in the future.

References

External links

* *
Details on the Colombina award she won in 2002 at Moose.nl

Killendoornse Courant Interview
(2002)
Moov Interview
(2005) {{DEFAULTSORT:Reidinga, Tjitske Dutch film actresses Dutch stage actresses Dutch television actresses People from Leeuwarden 1972 births Living people 20th-century Dutch actresses 21st-century Dutch actresses