Danish Originals

​From her home in Nørrebro in Copenhagen, Haderslev-born Danish-English multidisciplinary artist ​BIRGITTE MOOS CHALCRAFT talks about her time in Los Angeles at the start of the booming art scene in the Arts District of Downtown LA. There she was inspired by her fellow artists and the land and street art movements. Birgitte talks about her focus on the intersection of psychology and art, her inter...

In his home in Winchester outside of Boston, Aalborg-born Danish entrepreneur NICOLAI ROTTBØLL is excited about life in the US where he continues his work with international organizations on sustainability and green transition. He talks about the importance of positive thinking, his largest project Our World 2050 that calls on one million children to share their vision of our collective future, an...

In her home in Studio City, Los Angeles, Christianshavn-born Danish author, collector, and gallerist MUS WHITE recalls moments from the 60 years she has lived in California, having left Denmark upon her high school graduation. She talks about starting out as a juvenile probation officer, then becoming a published author and translator, a historical photography dealer and exhibition maker along wit...

In Los Angeles for the Annie Awards with his nominated short film, Hans Christian Andersen's The Swineherd (2023), Viborg-based Danish producer SØREN FLENG describes how he came to the industry through Denmark's world-renowned animation school, The Animated Workshop, and the unique community of animation professionals. He gives a sneak peak on his current project with a US partner, and sha...

From her home in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Danish creative director SIMONE FABRICIUS reflects on having loved New York City since seeing it on the movie screen in the '80s, and moving there 15 years ago after a decade in Paris from Denmark. Simone talks about her work, which she calls "play," in brand, packaging, visual design, and illustration, and how she's particularly excited about...

From her home in New York, Pulitzer finalist and Ebbe Munck Prize-winning Danish writer and editor LOUISE BOKKENHEUSER talks her upcoming novel How to Organize the World, and recalls her time as a war correspondent in Bagdad, Iraq for The Los Angeles Times and what her experience taught her about human beings' capabilities in treating each other. She further shares her thoughts on the state of...

From his apartment in Battery Park City in Manhattan, where he's called home since 1992, award-winning Odense-born Danish cartoonist and graphic novelist HENRIK REHR revisits starting his comic shop and drawing studio Den Blå Bil in his hometown in Odense. Henrik discusses his book Tribeca Sunset: A Story of 9-11 about his family's experience during the 2001 terrorist attack in New York Ci...

From her home in Manhattan, Hellerup-born Danish journalist, writer, and tv personality MERETE ANGELICA BAIRD talks about her current projects, a memoir that is also a recipe book, and her popular Danish tv series Verdensdamerne, or Ladies of the World. She recalls her work as a journalist for Politiken and Weekendavisen, covering all aspects of art and culture, she revisits her world travels, and...

From his home in Cooperstown in upstate New York, Danish photographer MARC HOM recalls moving to New York City when he was 21, and cutting his teeth working at Harper's Bazaar. A veteran New Yorker known for his iconic portraits of some of the world's most notable figures, Marc talks about establishing trust with his subjects, and about his recent museum exhibition Marc Hom: Re-Framed, his...

From her home in Copenhagen, Danish actress AMANDA COLLIN recalls her first acting seminar in New York at 23, which led to her iconic roles today in Danish films The Promised Land (2024) and The Quiet Ones (2024) and US series House of the Dragon (2024). Amanda talks about play in acting, and about accepting the unknown and being in the present. And she shares her latest project, The Creative Cycl...

From her home in Gentofte outside of Copenhagen, Danish director and former child star BARBARA TOPSØE-ROTHENBORG revisits her 11-year stay in Los Angeles, starting when she was 21, where she got her filmmaking education on the job. Returning home in search of a directing career and a work-life balance, Barbara talks about her film Loving Adults, the first Netflix Danish language original feature,...

From his home in Nordvest, Copenhagen, Danish-American photographer JAMIL GS recalls his time living in Los Angeles as a child, growing up bi-cultural in Denmark, and moving to New York in the 1990s where for 20 years, he captured hip-hop and street culture. Jamil talks about encountering racism in the US, and his artistic life celebrating multiculturalism. He talks about Young Stringers, an initi...

From her production company on Vesterbrogade, Copenhagen-born Oscar-nominated Danish film producer SIGNE BYRGE SØRENSEN shares her thoughts on what she learned to do producing her new film, The End, her first narrative feature and a six-country co-production. Signe talks about film as a collaborative art form, what she looks for in projects, the public support of film in Denmark, and the practical...

From his home in Copenhagen, a city he's called home for more than a decade, Texas-born Oscar-nominated American-Danish filmmaker JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER talks about his new narrative film The End (2024), an apocalyptic musical. Joshua discusses The End alongside his Oscar-nominated documentary films The Act of Killing (2012) and The Look of Silence (2014), and how the three provocative and divisiv...

On a stay in Los Angeles from Copenhagen, Søborg-born Danish entrepreneur and artist TONNY SØRENSEN recalls his 32-year-long stay in Los Angeles, initiated by his 1991 World Championship title in taekwondo, his acting aspirations, to leading the clothing brand Von Dutch Originals to international heights. He discusses communities he created outside of LA, including one based on Freetown Christiani...

After three years in Denmark, Lolland Falster-born Danish film composer and orchestrator LASSE ELKJAER has returned to Los Angeles, his home since 2013. Lasse talks about the unique demands of film music, his role models, and the difference between the work and communities in Denmark and the US. He shares his realistic views of LA and of the need to have ambition to survive in the creative space,...

On a visit to Los Angeles, Djursland-born Danish musician and singer SHARIN FOO recalls her start with her band The Raveonettes, being signed by Columbia Records, and the excitement in being the first Danish band to play on The David Letterman Show twice. She looks back on some of the highs and lows of her time in the global music industry. And she reflects on motherhood and rock 'n' roll,...

From her studio in New York City, Roskilde-born Danish architect EVA JENSEN shares her beginnings traveling the world, starting out professionally in The Big Apple, and establishing in 2005 her namesake architecture and interior design studio in Manhattan, where she remains today. She talks about the unique challenges of high-end residential projects, the evolution of the Danish aesthetic with her...

On a visit to Los Angeles, Odense-born Danish recycle artist THOMAS DAMBO explains his personal mission, "waste no more." He describes his early public projects inspired by waste left at music festivals, his Copenhagen Happy Wall commission at Kongens Nytorv, and the origins of his iconic and popular Trolls series. Always large-scale and community-driven, Thomas's message is consistent...

From Frederiksberg outside of Copenhagen, Funen-born Danish artist KIRSTEN JUSTESEN talks about the iconic 1970 exhibition Damebilleder (Women's Images) and about her year-long residence in New York in 2006 with the support of the Danish Arts Foundation. Trained in classical sculpture, Kirsten describes her use of her own body in her art and about the female gaze, and shares her mixed feelings...

In his art-filled home in Hellerup, Danish-Pakistani art collector and education entrepreneur KHURRAM JAMIL introduces MILAAP, his exhibition space that situates contemporary art in dialogue with his own collection characterized by thought-provoking work from the Global South. He shares his work on educational technology that brought him to Boston and New York from 2014 to 2020. And he describes t...

From Omaha, Nebraska where he's called home for 20 years, Lem-raised Danish wind turbine engineer PEDER HANSEN reminisces about his family's role as wind turbine pioneers in Denmark, and credits his mother for getting Vestas into the industry in the 1970s, and his father for getting Vestas wind turbines into the US field in the 1980s. Peder talks about climbing up wind turbines, and the st...

From her West London flat, Danish-Irish actress CLARA RUGAARD, known especially for her roles in I Am Mother (2019) and Black Mirror (2023), talks about her latest project The Crow Girl. Having worked internationally, Clara reflects on the pressure she felt coming from a bilingual family and being hard to categorize, but her love of storytelling, of relating to characters, and being surrounded by...

In his home in Humlebaek in northern Copenhagen, art collector and advisor JENS FAURSCHOU recalls opening his namesake gallery in 1986, which was followed by galleries in Beijing and in New York. He shares insights on the art world landscapes of Copenhagen, Beijing, and New York, reminisces about artists and art world figures with whom he's collaborated, and a missed opportunity to meet Andy W...

Bagsværd-born and raised Danish voiceover and performance capture director and coach TRINE C. JENSEN left Denmark 35 years ago to pursue her art, first in Miami, then New York, before landing in Santa Monica, Los Angeles. She shares her insights in one area of her expertise, video game voice acting, and describes the nonlinear storytelling approach and scope in Sony's Horizon Zero Dawn and Ris...