Biography for
Jonas Åkerlund More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

10 November 1965, Bromma, Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden

Height

6' 3" (1.91 m)

Spouse

Charlotta Palmbäck	(? - ?) (divorced) 1 child
B. Akerlund	(? - present)

Trade Mark

Music videos are often fictional movie trailers and short films

Fast-paced storytelling

Trivia

Has a son named Elvis

Undertook his military duty in the Swedish army from October 14th 1985 to August 8th 1986. Served in the 13th staff squadron of 1st Cavalry regiment in Stockholm.

Was the drummer for legendary Swedish Black/Death Metal band Bathory in the early to mid 80s. He can be heard on their debut CD "Bathory", released 1984 on Black Mark Records.

His video for Madonna's "Ray Of Light" was voted #72 in Slant Magazines Top 100 Videos. [19 January 2003].

Had a relationship with heiress and fashion designer Nina Philipson, granddaughter of Sweden's richest woman, Märta Philipson.

Has a daughter, Mini, with Nina Philipson. Mini was born in September 2001.

In longtime relationship with Los Angeles based costume designer "B".

With over 5000 edits, his feature film "Spun" is part of the Guinness book of records for being the feature film with the most edits in a feature.

In 2007 he received an MVPA Hall of Fame award for the Prodigy video "Smack My Bitch Up".

Has 4 MTV Moon Men. 1998 Grammy Best Short Form Music Video, "Ray of Light" - Madonna. 1998 MTV Video Music Award, Breakthrough Video, "Smack My Bitch Up" - Prodigy. 1998 MTV Video Music Award, Best Direction, "Ray of Light" - Madonna.

Won for "International Video of the Year" - Robbie Williams - "Come Undone" at the 13th Annual MVPA awards in 2004.

In 2006 he won the prestigious Cannes Lions 2006 (Grand Prix) together with a Cyber Lion for the "Un pimp mein auto" Volkswagen campaign.

In 1998 he received a Grammy for best short form music video - Madonna - "Ray of Light".

Directed music videos for Roxette, Moby, The Prodigy, Madonna, The Cardigans, Metallica, Jamiroqai, Iggy Pop, The Smashing Pumpkins, U2, Ozzy Osbourne, Robbie Williams, Blondie, Jane's Addiction, Blink 182, Rammstein, Primal Scream and more.

Personal Quotes

I took a strong antidrug decision many years ago, and I'm going to stick with it. I'm not going to dedicate my life to fighting drugs. For me the best part was to peek into these people's lives, and to do so with humanity. There are so many double standards here - a lot of stuff that people just don't talk about that is a big part of American culture and lifestyle. As an outsider, I can observe and portray this situation from my own point of view, with hopefully a fresh eye.

[about the editing process of Spun (2002)] I made 5,345 cuts editing this movie in Sweden. That's definitely for the Guinness Book of World Records.

I'm the worst drug addict in the world. I just can't do it. I was always against it, and I saw a lot of close friends changing, even a few friends dying, and that made me think a lot about it. I'm against drugs, I don't work with people who use drugs and it's not part of what I do. I never wanted to scare people, I just wanted to show the real side of it and make people think rather than telling them what to do.

When someone's paying you to do a job, which is most of the time, you always have to respect your clients. But if I could make a beautiful film and at the same time make people think, then that's perfect.

Sweden has a weird sense of knowing what's going on in the world and picking up on it early.