Paprika Steen

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Paprika Steen was born in Denmark to musician and conductor Niels Jørgen Steen and actress Avi Sagild. As a teen, she started her career performing on stage in various contemporary stage productions and has been associated with the Royal Danish Theatre since 1997. That same year, she wrote and performed in the satirical television series “Lex og Klatten,” which became a TV and music classic in Denmark. In 1998, Steen became an active participant in the internationally acclaimed Dogme 95 film movement as the only performer to appear in the first three movies: Lars Von Trier’s “The Idiots,” Thomas Vinterberg’s “The Celebration,” and Søren Kragh-Jacobsen’s “Mifune’s Last Song.” Often referred to as the “Dogme Queen,” she most recently appeared in Susanne Bier’s “Open Hearts,” for which she won a Bodil Award and a Robert Award (Oscar equivalent of Denmark) as Best Supporting Actress.

 

Steen won her first Bodil Award as the Best Supporting Actress in 2000 for “The One and Only.” In 2002, she won the Bodil Award, the Robert Award, and American Film Institute’s Grand Jury Prize for her leading role as the controlling loudmouth Nete in “Okay.”

 

Steen made her directorial debut with the award-winning 2004 drama “Aftermath,” and followed with the 2007 comedy, “With Your Permission.” One of Steen’s biggest triumphs on stage was her sensational, critically acclaimed 2008 performance as Martha in Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”