The 10 best Dutch Actors

Blond, blue-eyed, tall and handsome Dutch actor Rutger Hauer enjoyed an international reputation for playing everything from romantic leads to action heroes to sinister villains. Hauer was born in Breukelen, a Dutch town and former municipality in the province of Utrecht.

He was the son of Teunke Hauer (née Mellema) and Arend Hauer, actors who operated an acting school. As his parents were often touring, he and his three sisters were raised by a nanny. A bit of a rebel during his childhood, he chafed at the rules and rigors of school and was often getting into mischief. His grandfather had been the captain of a schooner and at age fifteen, Hauer ran away to work on a freighter for a year. Like his great-grandfather, Hauer was color-blind, which prevented him from furthering his career as a sailor.

Upon his return he attended night school and started working in the construction industry. When he again bombed at school, his parents enrolled him in drama classes. An amateur poet, he spent most of his time writing poetry and hanging out in Amsterdam coffee houses instead of studying. He was expelled for poor attendance and afterward spent a brief period in the Dutch navy.

Deciding he didn't like military life, Hauer honed his acting skills trying to convince his superiors he was mentally unfit and was sent to a special home for psych patients. It was an unpleasant place, but Hauer remained there until he had convinced his ranking officers that the military really did not need him.

Famke Janssen was born November 5, 1964, in Amstelveen, the Netherlands, and has two other siblings. Moving to America in the 1980s, she modeled for Chanel in New York. Later, taking a break from modeling, she attended Columbia University, majoring in literature.

This model-turned-actress broke into Hollywood in the early 1990s. Her first film was Fathers & Sons (1992). Later she became James Bond's enemy in GoldenEye (1995). Her career has bloomed since then with her starring in such films as House on Haunted Hill (1999), Hide and Seek (2005), a recurring role on FX's Nip/Tuck (2003), and the blockbuster movies X-Men (2000), X2: X-Men United (2003), and X-Men: The Last Stand (2006).

Turan Furat is known for Bellicher: Cel (2012), Goede tijden, slechte tijden (1990) and Bellicher (2010).

Michiel Huisman boasts an extensive career on both the small and large screen. He is currently shooting a lead role in Zack Snyder's film Rebel Moon for Netflix. He will next be seen as "Prince" in the Apple TV series Echo 3 opposite Luke Evans and created by Mark Boal. Most recently, he was seen in Netflix's A Boy Called Christmas opposite Sally Hawkins and Dame Maggie Smith, and the Spectrum Originals limited series, Angela Black.

Michiel's film credits include starring roles in; Malgorzata Szumowska's The Other Lamb, Aoife Crehan's The Last Right, Mike Newell's The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society opposite Lily James. Additional film credits include, Netflix's Irreplaceable You, Gideon Raff's Red Sea Diving Resort, The Age of Adaline opposite Blake Lively and Harrison Ford, Wild directed by Jean-Marc Vallée opposite Reese Witherspoon, World War Z opposite Brad Pitt, The Invitation directed by Karyn Kusama, and The Young Victoria opposite Emily Blunt.

On television Michiel is best known as series regular Daario Naharis on HBO's Game of Thrones. He starred in season one of HBO Max's, The Flight Attendant opposite Kaley Cuoco, and in Netflix's The Haunting of Hill House. Further television credits include recurring roles in Orphan Black, Nashville, as a series regular in HBO's Treme, Discovery Channel's miniseries Harley and the Davidsons, and the BBC television movie Margot.

Thekla Reuten is an undeniable front-runner in the new century's wave of European actresses lauded on the international stage and screen. In the space of just three years, the Dutch actress was a prominent member of two Best Picture Oscar nominees in the Foreign Language Feature category. In the Belgian comedy-drama "Everybody's Famous!" and the 2002 Dutch offering "Twin Sisters," she presented herself to international audiences as a force to be reckoned with. Reuten was then able to land a few notable English-language credits. On stage she starred opposite Gael Garcia Bernal in "Bloodwedding" directed by Rufus Norris at the Almeida Theatre. But arguably Reuten's best work in the United States was for the 2006-2007 Showtime series "Sleeper Cell" - in the second season, she portrayed a Muslim fundamentalist posing as a nanny. She had a small part in the quirky 2008 hitman drama "In Bruges," starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, and guested on an episode of the ABC fantasy series "Lost." In 2010 she played opposite George Clooney in his thriller "The American," which was shot in Europe, and in 2018 she also appeared in the 2018 Francis Lawrence spy-thriller "Red Sparrow". Last year she was awarded Best Actress twice for her lead role in critically acclaimed intimate drama "Narcosis". Most recently Reuten played Jillian Salvius in the Netflix action-fantasy series "Warrior Nun" and will be starring in Prime Video's Citadel: Diana, the next chapter in the Citadel Spyverse by the Russo Brothers' AGBO.

Speaking five European languages (Dutch, English, Italian, German and French) and with an Italian mother Reuten graduated from Amsterdam's Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1997 and quickly came to the recognition of stage and screen directors to garner roles in significant productions, debuting with leading Dutch TV series Wij Alexander (1998).

Lotte Verbeek is an award-winning Dutch actress, dancer and model. Lotte was born in Venlo, Netherlands. She was educated at Gymnasium Collegium Marianum in Venlo and graduated in 2008 at the Theaterschool in Amsterdam. From 1999, Verbeek attended the Dance Academy in Arnhem and the Amsterdam Academy of Jazz/Musical Theatre and Dance, where she graduated in 2006. During her studies, she worked as a dancer and model for photographer Erwin Olaf.

Yorick van Wageningen was born on 16 April 1964 in Baarn, Utrecht, Netherlands. He is an actor and writer, known for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), The Resurrection of a Bastard (2013) and The Judgement (2021).

One of Europe's most celebrated actresses, Carice van Houten is perhaps best known as 'Melisandre' in the iconic TV show Game of Thrones, a performance for which she has been recognized with an Emmy Award nomination in 2019. Other projects include Paul Verhoeven's award-winning Black Book and Bryan Singer's Valkyrie opposite Tom Cruise and as Melisandre on Game of Thrones. Recent projects include Instinct and Temple, a TV show for Sky opposite Mark Strong, which has been picked up for a second season.

Her Dutch-language feature Love Life, gained her further critical acclaim and broke box office records in her native Holland. Her next film Happy Housewive won her a record breaking 5th Golden Calf at The Netherlands Film Festival and was voted 'Best Dutch Actress of All Time' by the Dutch audience. Other awards include Best Actress for Black Butterflies at the Tribeca Film Festival and the Best Performance award for Instinct at the Les Arcs Film Festival 2019.

Her credits include Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's Intruders and Bill Condon's The Fifth Estate, the Jesse Owens biopic, Race, with Jason Sudekis and Jeremy Irons and voiced a character in The Simpsons. She can also be seen in Brian de Palma's Domino and in Brimstone, opposite Dakota Fanning, Guy Pearce and Kit Harrington, and The Glass Room, with Claes Bang. She played a leading role in Halina Reijn's directorial feature debut Instinct, opposite Marwan Kenzari (Aladdin), which won the Variety Piazza Grande Award in Locarno Film Festival 2019. Instinct is the first outing for the Carice and Halina's production banner, Man Up.

Up next is the new Dutch series Red Light, in which she not only plays the lead role but she is also creative producer of the show, together with Halina and their production company Man Up The show is expected to air in Autumn 2020.

Derek de Lint was born on 17 July 1950 in The Hague, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands. Derek is an actor and director, known for Soldier of Orange (1977), Black Book (2006) and Poltergeist: The Legacy (1996). Derek has been married to Dorith Jessurun since 1979. They have three children.

From the age of 6, she practiced classical ballet. Anna started her career as a model at age 15 (1998). During her secondary school she traveled for her work as a model. After she starred in a TV series she studied at the Amsterdam Drama School. In the final year of this Academy she filmed Bride Flight (2008), an international co-production in New Zealand.