Here's a guide to the career of Game Of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. It wasn't long after he graduated from the Danish National School of Performing Arts that Nikolaj Coster-Waldau landed the lead in cult Danish thriller Nightwatch. This eerie 1994 thiller cast the actor as the night watchman at a morgue who later becomes a suspect in a series of killings. In addition to being a hit in its native land, the movie was later remade - to much lesser effect - with Ewan McGregor and Josh Brolin in 1997; Ole Bornedal wrote and directed both versions.
Nightwatch helped get Nikolaj Coster-Waldau on the map and after some more Danish projects he made his English debut with 1997's Bent, an adaptation of the play of the same name starring Clive Owen. An assortment of movie and TV roles followed, including episodes of the short-lived Lock, Stock... series - an adaptation of the Guy Ritchie film - World War 2 drama Enigma and Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down. The latter featured Coster-Waldau as part of a large ensemble cast, including Ewan McGregor, who personally advised him not to watch the English language remake of Nightwatch.
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau spent the early 2000s jumping between Danish and American projects, including 2003 drama The Bouncer, romantic comedy Wimbledon and tepid Harrison Ford thriller Firewall. He also reunited with Ridley Scott for a small role in 2005 epic Kingdom Of Heaven. In 2008 he played the lead role in Fox series New Amsterdam, about an immortal who's currently living as a detective in New York. Despite a cool premise, the show only lasted eight episodes.
2011 proved to be a big year for Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as he starred in acclaimed thriller Headhunters and made his debut as Jaime Lannister in HBO's Game Of Thrones. Jaime was introduced as a villain and infamously pushed Bran from a tower after the young Stark fond Jaime being intimate with his own sister Cersei. The character would evolve into an antihero who tried to redeem his past mistakes and ended up being a fan-favorite. Coster-Waldau was with the series until the final season, though some fans were displeased with the end of the character's journey.
Being on one of the biggest shows on TV meant Nikolaj Coster-Waldau wasn't hurting for work in the years that followed 2011. Notable projects including a supporting role in sci-fi movie Oblivion, horror movie Mama and he played Horus in the poorly-received blockbuster Gods Of Egypt. The actor won great reviews for his turn in gritty thriller Shot Caller and got to work with the great Brian De Palma in 2019's thriller Domino. One of Nikolaj Coster-Waldau's most recent movies is 2020's The Silencing and he's rumored for the part of Joel in HBO's forthcoming adaptation of video game The Last Of Us.