Ellen Dorrit

Ellen Dorrit Petersen is a blond Norwegian actress who first studied her craft at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. After completing her degree in Performing Arts, she found a home in the Rogaland Theatre, a well-established theatre in the city of Stavanger. Petersen next joined the ranks of the Norwegian Theatre back in Oslo before finding a starring role in Nils Sandvik's short film "Pionéren." She made her debut feature-film performance in Erik Poppe's emotionally wrenching drama "Troubled Water," about a desperate man released from prison after being convicted of murdering a child and struggling to start over by befriending a young mother (Petersen). Released in 2008, the film took home the Best Narrative Feature audience prize at the Hamptons International Film Festival. Petersen's next role, in the WWII romantic drama "Iskyss," won her the 2009 Amanda Award for Best Actress. She plays Vera Våge, a Norwegian embassy employee who spies on her own country to protect the man that she loves, a Russian POW. After a top-billed part in the panned drama "Pax," about glimpses into the lives of passengers on a plane that is plummeting to the ground, she received a small role in the well-received reformatory school drama "King of Devil's Island," starring Stellan Skarsgård. Petersen continued starring in intimate, small-scale films in the early 2010s, including the two-woman drama "Fjellet," which earned her another Amanda nomination, and the 2012 suburban tragedy "Into the Dark."