Carice (Anouk) van Houten was born in Leiderdorp (near Leiden in The Netherlands) on 5.11.1976. Her parents are Margje Stasse and writer and broadcaster Theodore van Houten. She is the elder sister of actress and designer Jelka van Houten.
At the age of 5 her father Theodore took her to a screening of Abel Gance’s epic Napoleon which fascinated her. Carice has demonstrated great interest in cinema since. She convincingly demonstrated her acting talents at the Bonifatius Lyceum high school, Utrecht, in the early 90s. She also developed other skills, e.g. clarinet playing. In 1995 she was accepted by both the Maastricht and Amsterdam drama academies, and started her TV career as a student of the well known Kleinkunst Academie in Amsterdam. At the academy she was awarded the 1999 Pisuisse Prize, and the 2000 Top Naeff Prize for her outstanding theatre work. A day before the Top Naeff Prize she was awarded the ‘Gouden Kalf’ as best TV actress in Martin Koolhoven’s Suzy Q.
In 2001 Carice van Houten starred in Amnesia by Martin Koolhoven. In September 2000 she joined the Noord-Nederlands Toneel starring as a both singing and acting Polly in a contemporary staging of the Threepenny Opera to fabulously stunning reviews. Her great talent for dark comedy was demonstrated in a parody on City Lights’ blind girl in the Amsterdam Kleine Komedie. Carice is a great admirer of American silent comedies - particularly Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy - although she can display an equally dramatic talent. In 2001 she made Minoes, in the title role of the cat-woman after Annie M.G. Schmidt. In the 2001-02 season she won the main role in a theatre production of Schmidt’s musical Foxtrot.
Carice van Houten can now be seen in Paul Verhoeven’s “Black Book” along with her boyfriend Sebastian Koch.
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