Sofia Helin

Sofia Helin
Helin in 2012
Born	Sofia Margareta Helin (1972-04-25) 25 April 1972 (age 52) Hovsta, Örebro, Sweden
Occupation	Actress
Spouse	Daniel Götschenhjelm
Children	2

Sofia Margareta Götschenhjelm-Helin (born 25 April 1972) is a Swedish actress. She was nominated for a Guldbagge Award for her role in Dalecarlians, and stars as Saga Norén in the Danish/Swedish co-produced TV series The Bridge (Danish: Broen; Swedish: Bron).

Early life and education

Sofia Helin was born in Hovsta in Örebro, Närke. Her father was a salesman and her mother a nurse.^[1] When she was 10 days old, her grandmother and her six-year-old brother had a car accident; her grandmother survived, but her brother was killed.^[2] From 1994 to 1996, she went to Calle Flygares theatre school and graduated from the Stockholm Theatre Academy in 2001. She was brought up in Linghem, near Linköping but in 2015 was living in Stockholm.^[3]

Career

Helin played the leading role of Chief Inspector Klara in the film At Point Blank (Rånarna) in 2003. In 2004, she took the leading role of Mia in the Swedish comedy drama film Masjävlar, and was nominated for a Guldbagge award.^[4] In 2007 she played the leading role of Cecilia Algottsdotter in Arn, an adaptation of Jan Guillou's The Knight Templar, about Arn Magnusson. She also featured in the Swedish animated film Metropia (2009).

She became famous outside Sweden after 2012, when the first series of the highly successful TV crime drama series The Bridge went to air. In it, she played Saga Norén, a homicide detective from Malmö.^[5] In the UK, the series attracted more than a million viewers per episode, and she was called a role model for women with Asperger syndrome.^[6][4] The fourth season of the series aired in 2018.

In 2015, she starred in a Danish science fiction film called Fang Rung.^[7] In the same year, she acted in a British/German TV series directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, about divided Berlin in the 1970s, called The Same Sky, in which she spoke in both German and English. The series was shot in Prague.^[8]

Helin plays an archaeologist in series 2 of the 2020 Australian TV crime drama Mystery Road.^[9]

Personal life

Helin is married to Daniel Götschenhjelm, a priest in the Church of Sweden and former actor whom she met at drama school.^[4] She has two children: a son, Ossian, aged 21 and a daughter, Nike, aged 16 (as of 1 January 2025).^[10] Helin is a Christian.^[3]

Helin has a facial scar resulting from a cycling accident when she was 24.^[11][12]

Filmography

• Rederiet (1997)
• Tusenbröder (2002)
• Beck – Sista vittnet (2002)
• At Point Blank (2003)
• Four Shades of Brown (2004)
• Dalecarlians (Masjävlar) (2004)
• Blodsbröder (2005)
• Nina Frisk (2007)
• Arn – The Knight Templar (2007)
• Arn – The Kingdom at Road's End (2008)
• Metropia - Swedish animated film (2009)
• Gåten Ragnarok (2013)
• The Bridge (Broen/Bron) - TV series (2011–2018)
• The Same Sky - TV series (2017)
• That Good Night (2017)
• The Snowman (2017)
• Mystery Road (series 2) - TV series (2020)
• Atlantic Crossing - TV series (2020)
• Exit (series 2) - Norwegian TV series (2021)
• Fallen (Sanningen; 2023), a six-part TV series co-created by The Bridge lead writer Camilla Ahlgren^[13]

References

1. Thomson, Alice; Sylvester, Rachel (1 February 2014). "Sofia Helin – the star who turned Saturday night into Scandi-night". The Times. Archived from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
2. Lewis, Roz (1 January 2016). "Sofia Helin: My Family Values". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2 January 2016. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
3. Agorelius, Monika (30 October 2015). "Meet Sofia Helin – star of crime series 'The Bridge'". Scandinavian Traveller. SAS. Archived from the original on 11 April 2019. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
4. Williams, Sally (28 November 2015). "The Bridge's Sofia Helin: 'Playing Saga is like a vice gripping my body'". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 29 November 2015. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
5. Dowell, Ben (21 November 2015). "The Bridge's Sofia Helin: my love/hate relationship with Saga Noren". Radio Times. Archived from the original on 30 November 2015. Retrieved 7 December 2015.
6. Townsend, Lucy (9 December 2015). "How The Bridge's heroine became a role model for women with Autism". BBC News. Archived from the original on 27 April 2019. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
7. Barraclough, Leo (1 June 2015). "Global Screen Acquires Sci-fi Thriller 'Fang Rung' Starring 'The Bridge' Actress Sofia Helin". Variety. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
8. Pham, Annika (25 September 2015). "Sofia Helin: "A role has to turn me on"". Nordisk Film & TV Fond. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
9. Buckmaster, Luke (15 April 2020). "Mystery Road season two review – a new riddle for Aaron Pedersen's troubled detective". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
10. Midgely, Neil (4 January 2014). "The Bridge star Sofia Helin: It's hard to get out of the role of Saga". Radio Times. Archived from the original on 12 January 2015. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
11. Khaleeli, Homa (12 May 2012). "Move over, Sarah Lund: The Bridge star Sofia Helin interviewed". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 5 January 2014. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
12. Mesure, Susie (29 December 2013). "The view from The Bridge: Sofia Helin on weird sex and playing TV's most awkward copper". The Independent. Archived from the original on 23 January 2014. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
13. Knox, David (5 February 2024). "SBS acquires Scandi-drama, Fallen". TV Tonight. Archived from the original on 19 April 2024. Retrieved 19 April 2024.

External links

• Sofia Helin at IMDb