Connie Nielsen Biography

While Connie Nielsen was still a teenager, she began performing, together with her mother, in local sketch comedies and variety shows. When she turned 18, she left for Paris where she pursued acting and modelling. Later, she moved to Italy to continue her work and also enrolled in at the drama school in Rome and in master classes with Lydia Styx at Piccolo Teatro in Milan. Connie considers Lydia Styx as her biggest mentor.

Her debut film came out in 1984 and it was a French comedy film,Par où t'es rentré? On t'a pas vu sortir(How Did You Get In? We Didn't See You Leave), wherein she co-starred with the King of Comedy, Jerry Lewis. She then featured in few more comedies including Colletti Bianchi(Italian mini-series, 1988), Vacanze di Natale '91(Italian film, 1991) and Le Paradis Absolument(French film, 1993).

Thereafter, she shifted to the US and made her English language acting debut in 1993 in a made-for-TV thriller movie Voyage. A year later, she worked in a family drama series Okavango: The Wild Frontierwhere she played Lena. Her first significant role, though a supporting one, came in the 1997 supernatural horror movie - The Devil's Advocate - directed by Taylor Hackford.

Her work in the movie got noticed and fetched her more projects, three of which – an independent black comedy Permanent Midnight, a coming of age comedy dramaRushmoreanda science fiction action film Soldier – released in 1998.

The year 2000 proved significant for Nielsen as her big film – Gladiator – where she worked opposite Russell Crowe was released. In the film, she played Lucilla, daughter of the emperor of Rome, Marcus Aurelius. For her work in the film, she won The Empire Award for Best Actress in 2001.

In 2004, she worked in her first Danish film Brødre (Brothers). Her portrayal of Sarah bagged her the best actress award at the Bodil Awards as well as at San Sebastian International Film Festival.

In 2006, she returned to television to fill in for Mariska Hargitay, in the crime drama series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, while the latter was on her maternity leave.

The first decade of the century also saw her featuring in other films like Mission to Mars (2000), One Hour Photo, Demonlover (both 2002), The Hunted, Basic (both 2003), Return to Sender (2004), The Great Raid, The Ice Harvest (both 2005), The Situation (2006) and A Shine of Rainbows (2009).

In 2015, she collaborated with Danish pop and rock band TV-2 and sang a song – Brev til Mona – with singer songwriter and composer Steffen Brandt. She appeared in the video of the song too.

In 2017, Connie Nielsen portrayed the character of Hippolyta: The Amazon Queen of Themyscira and Diana's (Wonder Woman) mother in two superhero films – Wonder Woman and Justice League. She reprised her role in the 2020 sequel of the movie Wonder Woman 1984.

Some of the other films that she has been a part of since 2011 includes Perfect Sense (2011), Nymphomaniac, (2013), 3 Days to Kill, All Relative (both 2014), The Runner (2015), Løvekvinnen, The Confessions (all 2016), Stratton (2017), Sea Fever (2019) and Inheritance (2020).

On television, she appeared in series Boss (2011–2012) and The Following (2014). She also featured in television movie Unveiled (2015), Danish miniseries Liberty (2018) and limited series I Am the Night (2019).

She is also the founder of non-profit organisation ‘Human Needs Project’ and a scholarship program for children in slums, ‘Road To Freedom Scholarships’.

Connie Inge-Lise Nielsen was born on 3rd July 1965 in Frederikshavn, Denmark and was raised in the village of Elling as well as Copenhagen. Her family included father Bent Nielsen (bus driver), mother Laila Matzigkeit (an insurance clerk, actor and reviewer of musicals), brothers Bent Nielsen jr and Ulrich Nielsen and sister, Søs Nielsen.

She is fluent in eight languages which includes Danish, English, French, German, Italian,Norwegian,Swedish and some Spanish. She is also a trained singer and dancer.

In Italy, she was in relationship with Italian actor, Fabio Sartor. They have a son together named Sebastian. Later, she dated Lars Ulrich, a Danish American musician famous as the drummer of the heavy metal band Metallica. Their son Bryce -hadeus Ulrich-Nielsen was born in 2007.

She is a huge lover of designer sunglasses and has more than 200 pairs in her collection.