Part of Game of Thrones featuring Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington, Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, and Sophie Turner.
Rise to Fame
Coster-Waldau kept his theater school application secret from his own mother. In Denmark, the Jante Law makes ambition feel like something to hide, and he wasn't going to explain himself until he got in. He graduated in 1993, broke through at home with Nightwatch (1994), then spent the next 15 years mostly stalling in Hollywood. New Amsterdam, a Fox detective series, got cancelled after eight episodes in 2008. He lost the lead in John Carter before that film became one of the biggest studio flops in years. Jaime Lannister fixed all of that.
In the Spotlight
After Game of Thrones wrapped in 2019, the real question was whether Jaime Lannister would be all anyone remembered him for. The answer so far is no. The Last Thing He Told Me (Apple TV+, 2023) cast him opposite Jennifer Garner in a thriller built around him being charming and vaguely threatening at the same time. King & Conqueror (BBC, 2025), where he played William the Conqueror and co-produced, gave him another period lead in prestige TV. He's been a UNDP Goodwill Ambassador since 2016. Busy and credible, not transcendent.
Side Notes
He grew up in Tybjerg, a Danish village of about 40 people. His wife Nukaaka was Miss Greenland in the 1990 Miss Universe competition, and her father Josef Motzfeldt served in the Greenlandic parliament. Between GoT seasons, he starred in Headhunters (2011), a Norwegian thriller that reportedly became the country's highest-grossing domestic release of its era and beat Skyfall at the Empire Awards for Best Thriller. The kid who hid his ambitions from his own mother ended up with Jaime Lannister on his resume, which is either a great punchline or a great career, depending on who you ask.