--- name: "Mikael Birkkjær" canonical: "https://film.one/person/mikael-birkkjr" roles: ["Actor"] born: "14 September 1958" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_fi1m_score: 84 average_as: "actor" average_over: 2 updated: "2026-09-17T17:03:46.134853+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Mikael Birkkjær Actor. Born 14 September 1958 in København, Danmark. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 14 September 1958, København, Danmark - **Active:** 2007–2011 - **Also known as:** 미카엘 비르키에르 - **Frequently works with:** [Charlotte Sieling](https://film.one/person/charlotte-sieling.md), [Maren Louise Käehne](https://film.one/person/maren-louise-kaehne.md), [Rumle Hammerich](https://film.one/person/rumle-hammerich.md) - **Average Fi1m score:** 84, as actor, over 2 titles - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikael_Birkkj%C3%A6r, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q934395, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0083616/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/228218 ## Streaming the US now - **Apple TV:** [*The Bridge*](https://film.one/tv/the-bridge.md) (84) - **Netflix:** [*Borgen*](https://film.one/tv/borgen.md) (84) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Mikael Birkkjær > A theatre-trained Danish ensemble actor whose best screen work is done listening: as Philip Christensen in *Borgen* he makes a husband watching television carry as much weight as the speech it interrupts. Modest, exact, and worth looking for at the edge of the frame. Philip Christensen is on the sofa. His wife is on the television, at a debate she is not expected to win, and she has just put down her notes and started talking. Mikael Birkkjær does nothing in this shot that you could point to. He watches, with his son beside him, and you can see him work out what she has done and what it will cost the three of them. That is the job he is usually given, in *Borgen* (2010) and elsewhere: the man to one side, listening, whose face tells you the weight of what the person at the centre has just said. He came to it from the theatre. He trained at the Skuespillerskolen at Odense Teater in 1985 and spent a long stretch at Det Kongelige Teater from 1990, and television found him late, with *Sommer* in 2008. *Forbrydelsen* followed in 2009, in which he plays the police inspector Ulrik Strange, a part we will say nothing more about; then Philip in *Borgen*, which he kept up across every series through to 2022; then Jonas in the final series of *The Bridge* in 2018. The parts are husbands, colleagues, policemen, the professional men who fill out Danish ensemble drama, and he has made a career of them. *Borgen* is where he matters most, and it is the domestic half of that programme that shows why. Sidse Babett Knudsen's Birgitte Nyborg is the reason to watch, and the marriage is the reason to keep watching, because Birkkjær plays a decent man who has agreed to come second and is discovering, week by week, what that agreement means. We will not say how it goes. What we will say is that the cut to him at home in the first episode, before the plot has properly started, moved us more than the speech it interrupted, because the speech was about the country and he was already thinking about the three of them. Jonas in *The Bridge* is a different animal: blunt, careless of what anyone thinks of him, a partner for Henrik in the last series. It is a smaller matter. Our review did not single him out, and rightly, because the programme is Sofia Helin's, and Jonas is there to make its final stretch a little coarser than what came before. Birkkjær does it without asking for credit. The caveat is the obvious one. He is a Danish actor of the ensemble kind, and his reputation has stayed inside Danish and Scandinavian production; the international lead has not come and probably will not now. That is no loss to the work. If you want to know what he does, watch the first episode of *Borgen*, take your eye off Knudsen for a moment, and watch the man on the sofa. ## Biography Mikael Birkkjær is a Danish actor born in Copenhagen on 14 September 1958. He trained at the acting school of Odense Teater, graduating in 1985, and has been affiliated with the Royal Danish Theatre (Det Kongelige Teater) since 1990. He received the Lauritzen Prize in 1996. Birkkjær is known internationally for his television roles, including Philip Christensen, the husband of the prime minister, in the political drama *Borgen* (2010–2022), and Inspector Ulrik Strange in *Forbrydelsen* (*The Killing*, 2009). He also appeared as Jonas Mandrup in the fourth season of *The Bridge* (2018). He has appeared in numerous Danish films and stage productions over a career spanning more than four decades. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, radiotimes.com.* ## On Fi1m (2) - *The Bridge* (2011), Fi1m 84, as Jonas — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-bridge.md) - *Borgen* (2010), Fi1m 84, as Philip Christensen — [page](https://film.one/tv/borgen.md) ## Complete filmography (34) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Snake Killer* (2026), series, as Henrik Lundberg - *Danske tv-seriers bedste* (2024), series, as Sig selv - *Oxen* (2023), series, as Johnny Gregersen - *The Complaint* (2023), Acting - *Hostage* (2023), series, as Spencer - *Matadorerne* (2023), series, as C.F. Tietgen - *Fathers and Mothers* (2022), as Jewer - *Carmen Curlers* (2022), series, as Advokat Hoffmann - *Loving Adults* (2022), as Police Commissioner - *Baby Fever* (2022), series, as Niels-Anders - *Borgen - Power & Glory* (2022), series, as Philip Christensen - *The Sommerdahl Murders* (2020), series, as HP - *Tinka and the King's Game* (2019), series, as Laxes - *Et tårn af to* (2019), as E.M. - *The New Nurses* (2018), series, as Eriks far - *Stockholm Requiem* (2018), series, as Spencer Lagergren - *Lau & Laudrup* (2017), as Ole - *Mercur* (2017), series, as Peter Nielsen - *What We Become* (2015), as Casper - *All Inclusive* (2014), as Mogens - *Room 304* (2011), as Kasper - *The Bridge* (2011), series, as Jonas — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-bridge.md) - *Borgen* (2010), series, as Philip Christensen — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/tv/borgen.md) - *The Escape* (2009), as Claes Kielland - *Sommer* (2008), series, as Adam Sommer - *Der Kommissar und das Meer* (2007), series, as Martin Levander - *The Killing* (2007), series, as Ulrik Strange - *Oh Happy Day* (2004), as Carsten - *Aftermath* (2004), as Claes - *Better Times* (2004), series, as Jessen - *Harmony* (1995), Acting - *Begær, Lighed og Broderskab* (1990), series, as Christian Lange - *Boksning* (1988), as Erik - *Once a Cop...* (1987), series, as Kjeld Mikkelborg ## Awards ### Other awards — 1 won - Knight of the 1st Class of the Order of the Dannebrog 2005: Knight of the 1st Class of the Order of the Dannebrog (won) *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/mikael-birkkjr