Baltasar Kormákur is an actor, producer and director whose work spans theater, movies and television. Born in Reykjavik, Iceland, he graduated as an actor from Iceland is National Academy of Fine Arts in 1990. He was immediately signed on by the National Theatre of Iceland, where he worked as one of the leading young performing artists until 1997. During the last two years of his assignment, he also directed several ambitious works, after having produced and directed highly popular, independent stage productions alongside his projects with the National Theatre. In 2000, he wrote, directed, acted in and produced the feature film 101 Reykjavik, which became an international hit and earned the Discovery Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. Subsequently, Variety selected him as one of the 10 Directors to Watch, along with Alejandro González Iñárritu, Lukas Moodysson, Christopher Nolan and other newcomers at the time.