Kristofer Hivju

Kristofer Hivju was a Norwegian actor who was best known for portraying the character Tormund Giantsbane on the epic fantasy series "Game of Thrones" (HBO, 2011-19). Born and raised in Oslo, Norway, Hivju was exposed to the acting profession at a very young age. His father was Erik Hivju and mother Lieselotte Holmene-both respected film and TV actors in Norway. So for Hivju, the thought of making a living portraying other people on screen always seemed like something he could do. Having watched his parents in movies and on TV his entire life, Hivju decided to follow in their footsteps. He attended the Russian Academy of Theater Arts in Moscow in the early 2000s, and it was there that he learned the acting craft firsthand from some of the most world's most renowned teachers. After graduating from the Academy in 2004, Hivju embarked on his own professional acting career. He began landing small parts on Norwegian TV shows, and eventually nabbed some film roles, among them "Manhunt" (2008), "The Thing" (2011), "After Earth" (2013), and "Force Majeure" (2014). Then in 2013 Hivju landed his breakout role as Tormund Giantsbane on HBO's immensely popular fantasy series "Game of Thrones." Hivju began portraying Giantsbane during the third season of the series and appeared in all subsequent seasons up until the series finale in May of 2019. During his time on "Game of Thrones," Hivju also kept up with his film acting by nabbing big parts in the action films "The Last King" (2016) and "The Fate of the Furious" (2017). After "Game of Thrones" ended in May of 2019, Hivju began appearing in the Scandinavian TV series "TWIN" (Nrk, 2019- ). In addition to starring in the series, Hivju was also the co-creator. "TWIN" began appearing on Norwegian television in the fall of 2019.