• Björn Hlynur Haraldsson is a popular Icelandic actor who has become internationally known for his roles in series such as "Trapped" and "Fortitude"
• He was born in Reykjavik, Iceland and attended the Icelandic Arts Academy
• He is a theatre director, actor and playwright who has been invited to guest star in various theatres in London and Reykjavik
• He has appeared in such movies as "Country Wedding", "The Cliff" and "Desember"
• He has a net worth of around $1 million, combining his acting, directing and screenwriting career.
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Björn Hlynur Haraldsson is a popular Icelandic actor, who is mostly famous for his roles in local movies, filmed and produced in Iceland. However, Björn became internationally popular for his appearing in such series as “Trapped”, “Fortitude” and one of the latest series from Netflix, “The Witcher”.
Early life and family
Björn Hlynur Haraldsson was born on 8 December 1974, in Reykjavik, Iceland, so his zodiac sign is Sagittarius. He spent his early life in Reykjavik, doing a lot of sports, developing his passion for football and hockey.
Educational background
Björn matriculated form his local high school in 1992. After several years of working on various jobs, he decided to become an actor, and then enrolled at the Icelandic Arts Academy.
The same year he graduated in 2001, he co-founded Vesturport, the theatre company he still works in as a director, actor and playwright.
Career
Theatre career
Björn started working in Vesturport, and landed main roles in such productions as “Woyzeck”, “Romeo and Juliet” and “Brim”; he also had major roles in “Key Around the Neck”, “The Housewife” and “Faust” – co-writing the latter two – and has been invited as a guest star in various theatres in London, such as The Almeida Theatre, where he participated in the production entitled “Blood Wedding”, and The Barbican, in which he played in the “Peer Gynt” production, which was also performed at The National Theatre of Iceland, where he could also be seen in the City Theatre in Reykjavik, playing one of the major roles in “Death of a Salesman”.
As a theatre director, Björn has worked with such productions as “Shopping Mall Shattered”, “Titus Andronicus” and “Dubbeldusch”; he also wrote and worked on such plays as “Axlar-Björn” and “Jesus Christ Superstar”.
Television and movie career
Björn started his TV career a year after he began acting in the theatre. He debuted in “Reykjavik Guesthouse: Rent a Bike” (2002), landing the role of Guðjón, then appeared as Indriði in “Kaldaljós” (“Cold Light”, 2004), as Ottar Thor in “Strákarnir okkar” (“Eleven Men Out”, 2005) and as Sigurður Óli in “Mýrin” (“Jar City”, 2006). He was invited to appear in “Country Wedding” (2008), “The Cliff” (2009) and “Desember” (2009), playing either episodic or minor roles. In 2010 Björn landed the roles of Önni in “Kóngavegur” and of Logi in “Brim”.
Then he played Arnar in “Kurteist fólk” (“Polite People”, 2011), the comedy directed by Olaf de Fleur Johannesson.
Björn played Ingólfur in “City State” (2012) and Helgi in “The Lava Field” (2014), then appeared in “Fortitude” (2016 – present), a popular series in which Björn landed the role of Deputy Eric Odegård, appearing in more than 25 episodes of the show. He also had the role of Trausti Einarsson in 18 episodes of the series “Trapped” (2018 – 2019), actually the chief of the Reykjavik Bureau of Investigation.
As a director, Björn has worked on such movies as “Korriró” (2011), “Ferðalok” (“The Legends of Iceland”, 2013) and “Blóðberg” (2015), acting also as a screenwriter for all these projects. Björn made a cameo appearance in “Love is in the Air” (2004), appearing as himself in the documentary directed by Ragnar Bragason. Among his future projects in which Björn is going to appear as an actor, there are such movies as “Kill the Poet”, in which Björn landed the roles of Ragnar and Smara, and “Eurovision”, which is set for release in 2020.
Awards
In 2006 at The Berlin International Film Festival, Björn won the EFP (European Film Promotion) Shooting Star Award. He was also nominated as Best Supporting Actor for such as Edda, International Jury and the Gold Hugo Awards.
Eist Tuirseach in “The Witcher”
In December 2019 Björn appeared in three episodes of the new series released by Netflix, “The Witcher”, in the role of Eist Tuirseach, the Jarl of Skellige, the Northern islands. His nephew, Crach an Craite who Eist mentored, was one of the challengers for the hand of Princess Pavetta, the daughter of Queen Calanthe.
However, Calanthe and Eist’s secret agreement of Pavetta and Crach’s marriage was destroyed by the appearance of Lord Urcheon of Erlenwald, who later called himself Duny. Everybody found out that Duny and Pavetta dated for some period of time, and eventually Pavetta became pregnant to him. To keep the union between Cintra and Skellige, Eist Tuirseach instantly proposed to Queen Calanthe at the same ball, when everyone discovered the affair between Pavetta and Duny. Freya Allen, who played the role of Pavetta’s daughter, Ciri, shared that she really enjoyed meeting with Björn, calling him “literally the funniest man”.
Hraunið eru fyrstu íslensku spennuþættirnir á Netflix https://t.co/rezMvTRfAS pic.twitter.com/7d00NDs1Ru
— Nútíminn (@nutiminn) July 19, 2016
Personal life
Björn is rather secretive about his personal life, so he hasn’t shared any details on his relationship status yet. It’s not known if he’s married, has kids, or anything about and other relatives.
Hobbies, favorite things and interesting facts
Björn is a football fan from his childhood years – his favorite football club is FC Throttur from Reykjavík, Iceland. Björn likes listening to music, whenever he has some spare time for it, and one of his favorite singers is Iggy Pop. Björn likes skiing, ice-skating and other winter sports.
Appearance, clothing style
Björn has short black hair with a beard and moustache, and blue eyes – he sometimes wears glasses. Björn is 6ft 3ins (1.9m) tall and weighs around 187lbs (85kgs). As to his clothing style, he prefers sweaters and trousers of black color. He also enjoys wearing blazers.
Net worth and salary
As of 2020, Björn’s net worth is estimated to be around $1 million. He continues earning an impressive amount of money, combining his acting, directing and screenwriting careers.
