Iben Hjejle

Iben Hjejle was born on March 22, 1971, in Denmark. She graduated from the State Theatre School (Copenhagen) in 1996, but had at that point already had her movie debut in the short film "Nøgen" ("Naked") from 1991. This movie was directed by Niels Arden-Oplev who also cast her as Eva, one of the main characters in his later movie "Portland". The year before her graduation from the nationail theatre school, Hjejle played Gretchen in Goethe's "Faust" at the Betty Nansen Theatre (1995) in Copenhagen and later she had the leading part as Donna Juanna at the Østre Gasværk Theathre, also in Copenhagen. In 1999 Hjejle had her breakthrough as Liva Psilander in Søren Kragh-Jacobsen's Dogme movie "Mifunes sidste sang" ("Mifune") and as a direct effect of that movies success she was cast as Laura in Stephen Frears' love comedie hit "High Fidelity", where she co-stared with John Cusack, Joan Cusack and other prominent stars of Hollywood (Catherine Zeta-Jones for one).