Pilou Asbæk is a Danish theatre, television and film actor who first shot to fame with his performance as Kasper Juul, a troubled spin doctor, in the Danish TV show Borgen. He is known for his performances in the movies R (2010) for which he won the Best Actor Award at Danish Film Academy and Danish Film Critics Association’s Bodil Awards, A Family (2010), A Hijacking (2012), and Sex, Drugs & Taxation (2013). Asbæk also portrayed the character of Euron Greyjoy in one of the most successful drama series of all time, Game of Thrones.

Early Life
Asbæk was born to Jacob A. Asbæk and Maria Patricia in Copenhagen. His father is Danish and his mother is French: his parents run a gallery in Copenhagen. He is the youngest of his siblings - Thomas Asbæk is an art consultant at Asbæk Art Consulting and Martin Asbæk owns the Martin Asbæk Gallery. Asbæk completed his schooling from the Herlufsholm School and was an active participant in various drama productions at the school. He later, in 2008, graduated from the National School of Theatre, Denmark.

Personal Life
Asbæk is married to the playwright Anna Bro, who is the daughter of the actors Vigga Bro and Hans Henrik Clemensen. The couple’s first child, a daughter, Agnes, was born on 31st of December, 2012.

Television Career
Asbæk began his television career in 2008 with the TV show Deroute appearing in the role of Mulvad in three episodes. The following year he appeared in a single episode of one of the most acclaimed and successful Danish TV shows, The Killing. However, Asbæk’s breakthrough role came in the year 2009 with Adam Price’s TV series Borgen. Appearing in 29 episodes, the actor received critical appreciation for is performance as Kasper Juul, a spin doctor. His next substantial role came in 2013 with the TV show The Borgias. In 2014, he was seen essaying the role of Didrich in a high-budget period TV series titled 1864.

In 2016, Asbæk joined the cast of Game of Thrones (season 6) in the role of the pirate captain Euron Greyjoy.

Movie Career
Asbæk began his movie career in the same year as he started his TV career - 2008. He made his feature debut with the movie Worlds Apart (2008) alongside Rosalinde Mynster. The film,inspired by true experiences of a 17-year-old Jehovah’s Witness girl who fell in love with a non-believer boy, is directed by Niels Arden Oplev and was Denmark’s official submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2009. In the same year, he also appeared Christian E. Christensen’s Crying for Love (2008).

It was in 2010 that Asbæk starred in one of the most prominent roles of his career in Tobias Lindholm’s prison drama R. Portraying the role of Rune Pedersen, a prisoner in the Horsens State Prisoner who distributes drugs between the department, the actor won the Best Actor Award at the Bodil Awards and Robert Awards. Asbæk followed this with another promising performance in the movie A Family (2010) directed by Pernille Fischer Chistensen. He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Bodil Awards, while the movie was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival.

In the 2012 drama thriller, A Hijacking, Asbæk was seen essaying the role of Mikkel Hartmann, a cook on board the merchant ship Rosen, who is taken as a hostage. The actor delivered another convincing performance and went on to win the second Bodil Award for Best Actor. The following year, he appeared in the movie Sex, Drugs & Taxation. He also starred in the English-language French film Lucy (2013) directed by Luc Besson. In the following years, he starred in the movies Silent Heart (2014), A War (2015), The Great Wall (2016), and Ben-Hur (2016). His 2017 release includes the movie Ghost in the Shell directed by Rupert Sanders.

Theatre Career
In 2008, Asbæk starred in the plays Folk og røvere i Kardemomme By and Core.