William Jøhnk Nielsen

Though he has been appearing on-screen since he was four years old, Danish performer William Johnk Nielsen found his true breakout role as a teenager after his mother responded to a newspaper advertisement search for actors in a feature film. Ultimately, responding to that ad proved to be an incredibly smart move--in his eventual audition, Nielsen ended up blowing away the higher-ups behind the thriller-drama "In a Better World," demonstrating his English fluency and his strong emotional range. It was love at first sight for the casting team, who hired the young Nielsen after only a single audition. He went on to appear in a major supporting role as Christian (a troubled yet heroic school boy), earning major acclaim, while the film itself took home both the Oscar and Golden Globe awards for Best Foreign Language Film in 2011. With such a strong debut performance, Nielsen had plenty of options for where to go next (and this time, it seemed the entire world was watching). It didn't take the teenager long to earn more roles, either; he landed two quality supporting parts in a pair of 2012 films: the home invasion horror project "Skavengers" and the romantic history-drama "A Royal Affair."