Anita Briem

In 2008, Anita Briem became one of Iceland's hottest exports as a model-attractive actor with the range to play both demure flower of courtly love and skilled action hero. She initially worked as a child actor in numerous Icelandic media and, after studying at London's venerable Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), graduated to some West End stage productions and British TV guest shots. In 2006, she returned home to star in the thriller "Köld slóo" ("Cold Trail") and made her Hollywood debut on the cop procedural drama "The Evidence" (ABC, 2006). Designated a fresh young talent, she was given a shot at a would-be summer blockbuster, playing rugged eye-candy opposite Brendan Fraser in "Journey to the Center of the Earth" (2008). Though that film bombed, she made a splash in premium television as Lady Jane Seymour in Showtime's glossy period soap "The Tudors" (2007-10), before conspicuously bowing out of the series' third season. She returned to genre adventure in 2010 as an archetypal lady-in-distress in the horror-comedy "Dylan Dog: Dead of Night" and segued into a sequence of indie films, highlighted by the claustrophobic thriller "Elevator" (2012). Distinguished by her chiseled Nordic features, Briem proved herself adept at donning myriad character types across genres.