Markus Rygaard

Markus Rygaard's first professional acting job turned out to be a lifechanging one; acclaimed Danish director Susanne Bier ("After The Wedding," "Things We Lost in the Fire") cast him as a tormented young boy in the moralistic drama "In a Better World," which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2011. As Elias, who is bullied daily at school and yearns for the attention of his largely-absent doctor father (Mikael Persbrandt), Rygaard and his emotional performance served as the catalyst for the film's revenge-driven plot, which revolves around Elias' friendship with his equally damaged classmate Christian (William Johnk Nielsen). The same year he filmed "In a Better World," Rygaard lent his voice to the children's animated short film "Tigre og tatoveringer," which follows the adventures of a young girl and her eccentric uncle as they journey through a magical forest. He continued his voiceover work in 2011, when he was cast in the feature animated film "The Great Bear." He voiced the role of Jonathan, a young boy whose hopes of spending a quiet summer holiday with his grandfather are ruined by the arrival of his pesky younger sister Sophie, who is quickly kidnapped by a giant mythical bear.