45 Notable Alumni of the Oslo National Academy of the Arts

Ingrid Bolsø Berdal

Born in: Norway
Years: 1980-.. (age 45)
Occupations: celebritystage actorsingeractor
Biography: Ingrid Bolsø Berdal is a Norwegian actress. She started her career with the 2005 short film Limbo. Her first leading role was in the Norwegian slasher film Cold Prey (2006). She has since appeared in over fourteen films, including Chernobyl Diaries (2012), Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013), and Hercules (2014). From 2016 to 2018, she played the role of Armistice in the HBO series Westworld (2016–2022).

Aksel Hennie

Born in: Norway
Years: 1975-.. (age 50)
Occupations: screenwriterfilm directoractor
Biography: Aksel Hennie is a Norwegian actor, director, and screenwriter. He is best known for his roles in the films Headhunters (2011), Hercules (2014), and The Martian (2015).

Jakob Oftebro

Born in: Norway
Years: 1986-.. (age 39)
Occupations: film actorvoice actortelevision actoractor
Biography: Jakob Hoff Oftebro is a Norwegian actor. He has appeared in more than twenty films since 2004 including Hamilton and Kon-Tiki, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 85th Academy Awards.

Renate Reinsve

Born in: Norway
Years: 1987-.. (age 38)
Occupations: actor
Biography: Renate Reinsve is a Norwegian actress. She made her film debut in Oslo, August 31st (2011). In 2021, she had her breakout role in the critically acclaimed drama The Worst Person in the World (2021), for which she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress and received a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. She has since starred in the American legal thriller series Presumed Innocent and drama film A Different Man (both 2024).

Pål Sverre Hagen

Born in: Norway
Years: 1980-.. (age 45)
Occupations: television producertelevision actorstage actoractor
Biography: Pål Sverre Valheim Hagen is a Norwegian stage and screen actor. He is perhaps best known internationally for playing Thor Heyerdahl in the Oscar and Golden Globe nominated film Kon-Tiki. From 2019 to 2023, Hagen portrayed William in Exit, a series in 3 seasons that described the decadent lives of 4 men in Oslo's finance elites. It became the most streamed in the history of Norwegian national television.

Thorbjørn Harr

Born in: Norway
Years: 1974-.. (age 51)
Occupations: actor
Biography: Thorbjørn Harr is a Norwegian actor.

Agnes Kittelsen

Born in: Norway
Years: 1980-.. (age 45)
Occupations: film actortelevision actorstage actoractor
Biography: Agnes Elisabet Hilden Kittelsen is a Norwegian actress.

Kåre Conradi

Born in: Norway
Years: 1972-.. (age 53)
Occupations: singeractortelevision actor
Biography: Kåre Conradi is a Norwegian actor.

Pia Tjelta

Born in: Norway
Years: 1977-.. (age 48)
Enrolled in the Oslo National Academy of the Arts: Studied in 2000-2006
Occupations: actor
Biography: Pia Merete Tjelta is a Norwegian actress.

Anneke von der Lippe

Born in: Norway
Years: 1964-.. (age 61)
Occupations: stage actorfilm actoractor
Biography: Anneke von der Lippe is a Norwegian actress. She made history as the first Norwegian – and Nordic - actress to win an International Emmy Award.

Frank Kjosås

Born in: Norway
Years: 1981-.. (age 44)
Occupations: actortelevision actor
Biography: Frank Kjosås is a Norwegian actor of theatre and film, known for The Half Brother, and his role as Norwegian resistance soldier Knut Haukelid in The Heavy Water War.

Lise Fjeldstad

Born in: Norway
Years: 1939-.. (age 86)
Occupations: actor
Biography: Lise Barbra Skappel Fjeldstad is a Norwegian actress, and daughter of the conductor and violinist Øivin Fjeldstad. A graduate of the Norwegian National Academy of Theatre in 1963, she started working at Det Norske Teatret (the Norwegian Theater) immediately afterward. In 1975 she was hired by the National Theatre, where she has acted in roles such as "Blanche Dubois" in Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire, and "Agnes" in Henrik Ibsens Brand. She won the Amanda – the main Norwegian film award – for best actress for her role in Dødsdansen in 1991. She has two children with her partner, actor Per Sunderland. She is married to Gordon Braddy.

Iren Reppen

Born in: Norway
Years: 1965-.. (age 60)
Occupations: film actorstage actorsingeractor
Biography: Iren Reppen is a Norwegian actress.

Jakob Weidemann

Born in: Norway
Years: 1923-2001 (aged 78)
Occupations: painter
Biography: Jakob Weidemann was a Norwegian artist. Jakob Weidemann is regarded as one of Norway's more important artists of post-war Modernism. Weidemann's work Storfuglen letter (1959) was selected as one of the twelve most important Norwegian artworks by Morgenbladet.

Silya Nymoen

Born in: Norway
Years: 1978-.. (age 47)
Occupations: musiciansinger-songwritertelevision presenteractor
Biography: Silya Nymoen is a Norwegian singer-songwriter based in Oslo. She is the lead singer and songwriter in the band Silya & The Sailors.

Katja Medbøe

Years: 1945-1996 (aged 51)
Occupations: actorscreenwriter
Biography: Katja Maria Riosianu Medbøe was a Norwegian actress.

Grete Prytz Kittelsen

Born in: Norway
Years: 1917-2010 (aged 93)
Occupations: goldsmithdesigner
Biography: Grete Prytz Kittelsen, was a Norwegian goldsmith, enamel artist, and designer. She is one of the most well-known Norwegians in the Scandinavian Design movement, and has been referred to as the "Queen of Scandinavian Design". Through her work she contributed to internationalisation, innovation and scientific research. She was one of the few Norwegian practitioners who shaped the Scandinavian design style in the post-war era and is the periods’ most renowned Norwegian practitioner. Kittelsen's aim was to make beautiful and user-friendly everyday objects available for everyone. She had a vast and varied production. With her enamelled objects and jewellery she has been a pioneer in design in the post-war era and a model for the next generation of designers. Today her pieces constitute design icons and are sought-after collectables.

Svein Nyhus

Born in: Norway
Years: 1962-.. (age 63)
Occupations: writerchildren's writerillustrator
Biography: Svein Nyhus is a Norwegian illustrator and writer of children's books.

Knut Steen

Born in: Norway
Years: 1924-2011 (aged 87)
Occupations: sculptor
Biography: Knut Steen was a Norwegian sculptor. Steen lived in Sandefjord for most of his life and dedicated works such as the Whaler's Monument to the city. Many of his sculptures may also be seen at Midtåsen Sculpture Park, a park dedicated to Steen at the former villa of Anders Jahre in Sandefjord.

Astrid Folstad

Born in: Norway
Years: 1932-2009 (aged 77)
Occupations: stage actoractor
Biography: Astrid Borgny Folstad was a Norwegian actress.

Eldbjørg Løwer

Born in: Norway
Years: 1943-.. (age 82)
Occupations: businesspersonpoliticianceramicist
Biography: Eldbjørg Løwer is a Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party.

Finn Graff

Born in: Germany
Years: 1938-.. (age 87)
Occupations: graphic artistcaricaturistillustrator
Biography: Finn Graff is a Norwegian illustrator.

Knut Rumohr

Born in: Norway
Years: 1916-2002 (aged 86)
Occupations: printmakergraphic artistpainter
Biography: Knut Lindstrøm Rumohr was a Norwegian painter and printmaker.

Egil Nyhus

Born in: Norway
Years: 1962-.. (age 63)
Occupations: illustrator
Biography: Egil Nyhus is a Norwegian illustrator.

Torleif S. Knaphus

Born in: Norway
Years: 1881-1965 (aged 84)
Occupations: sculptor
Biography: Torleif Severin Knaphus was a Norwegian-born artist and sculptor in Utah, primarily known for sculptures for and about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).

Ahmed Umar

Born in: Sudan
Years: 1988-.. (age 37)
Occupations: visual artistactor
Biography: Ahmed Umar is a Sudanese-Norwegian visual artist and LGBT activist. He grew up in a conservative family in Sudan and later fled to Norway. His artwork mixes Sudanese (e.g., the Black Pharaohs of the ancient Kingdom of Kush) and Western influences. He was profiled in the 2020 documentary The Art of Sin.

Dag Hol

Born in: Germany
Years: 1951-.. (age 74)
Occupations: painter
Biography: Dag Hol is a Norwegian figurative painter and graphic artist.

Kristofer Leirdal

Born in: Norway
Years: 1915-2010 (aged 95)
Occupations: sculptor
Biography: Kristofer Leirdal was a Norwegian sculptor and art educator. He was especially noted for his sculptural contributions to the restoration of the Nidaros Cathedral.

Ida Lorentzen

Born in: United States
Years: 1951-.. (age 74)
Occupations: painter
Biography: Ida Margrethe Lorentzen is an American born, Norwegian artist known for her paintings of interiors of a melancholic nature.

Aase Texmon Rygh

Born in: Norway
Years: 1925-2019 (aged 94)
Occupations: sculptor
Biography: Aase Texmon Rygh, was a Norwegian sculptor working in the modernist style.

Arne E. Holm

Born in: Norway
Years: 1911-2009 (aged 98)
Occupations: graphic artistpostage stamp designerpainterdesignerarchitect
Biography: Arne Ellerhusen Holm was a Norwegian painter, graphic artist and architect.

Kirsten Sørlie

Born in: Norway
Years: 1926-2013 (aged 87)
Occupations: actorfilm director
Biography: Kirsten Sørlie was a Norwegian actress and stage director.

Jorgen Dreyer

Born in: Norway
Years: 1877-1948 (aged 71)
Occupations: sculptor
Biography: Jørgen Christian Dreyer was a Norwegian-born American sculptor. He emigrated to the United States in 1903 and worked as a professor of sculpture at the Kansas City Art Institute from 1907 to 1909. In his career Dreyer created a number of monumental sculptures, some of which are located in Kansas City, Missouri. His major works include: Life Drift; The Goddess of Dawn; Sphinxes (pair); Biology and Chemistry (a pair of figures); Lionesses (pair); The Message (a bust of Archibald Butt); Bust of Sir Carl Busch; Mercury, god of commerce; and Bust of Major General Sterling Price.

Joseph Grimeland

Years: 1916-2002 (aged 86)
Occupations: sculptor
Biography: Joseph Grimeland was a Norwegian sculptor.

Karen Holtsmark

Born in: Norway
Years: 1907-1998 (aged 91)
Occupations: painter
Biography: Karen Kristine Holtsmark was a Norwegian painter.

Siri Dokken

Born in: Norway
Years: 1966-.. (age 59)
Occupations: professorcartoonistillustrator
Biography: Siri Dokken is a Norwegian illustrator.

Tone Thiis Schjetne

Born in: Norway
Years: 1928-2015 (aged 87)
Occupations: sculptor
Biography: Tone Thiis Schjetne was a Norwegian sculptor. She is represented in the National Gallery of Norway and other galleries, contributed several works to the Nidaros Cathedral, and made decorations to Vadsø Church. Among her best known public works is the bronze sculpture Go'dagen in Oslo, Trondheim and Stavanger.

Peter Esdaile

Born in: Canada
Years: 1947-.. (age 78)
Occupations: graphic artistpainter
Biography: Peter Esdaile is a Norwegian painter, sculptor, and printmaker born in Canada. Esdaile was educated in the period 1966–1973 at the National Academy of Craft and Art Industry, and at the National Academy of Fine Arts where he received his MFA. He studied under Chrix Dahl, Åge Storstein, Ludvig Eikaas, Halvdan Ljøsne, and Arne Malmedal.

Hugo Wathne

Born in: Norway
Years: 1932-2017 (aged 85)
Occupations: sculptor
Biography: Hugo Wathne was a Norwegian sculptor and art instructor.

Halvdan Ljøsne

Born in: Norway
Years: 1929-2006 (aged 77)
Occupations: professorart historianpainter
Biography: Halvdan Ljøsne was a Norwegian painter.

Thore Heramb

Years: 1916-2014 (aged 98)
Occupations: illustratorpainter
Biography: Thore Heramb was a Norwegian painter and illustrator. His art was inspired by impressionism and by cubism. His artistic style is commonly described as colourist and frequently featured abstracted landscapes.

Ada Madssen

Born in: Norway
Years: 1917-2009 (aged 92)
Occupations: sculptor
Biography: Ada Madssen was a Norwegian sculptor.

Unni-Lise Jonsmoen

Born in: Norway
Years: 1936-.. (age 89)
Occupations: writerpainterillustrator
Biography: Unni-Lise Jonsmoen is a Norwegian illustrator and children's writer.

Klaus Gjøstein

Years: 1905-1992 (aged 87)
Occupations: painter
Biography: Klaus Gjøstein was a Norwegian painter.

Hans Finne-Grønn

Years: 1903-2001 (aged 98)
Occupations: sculptorpainterdraftsperson
Biography: Hans Fredrik Leganger Finne-Grønn was a Norwegian painter.