David Dencik | |
|---|---|
 Dencik in 2014 | |
| Born | Karl David Sebastian Dencik Stockholm, Sweden |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 2003–present |
Karl David Sebastian Dencik (Slovak pronunciation: [ˈdentʂiːk]) is a Swedish-Danish actor. He has acted in both Swedish and Danish films, and has also had major roles in English-language films and series including Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), Top of the Lake (2017), McMafia (2018), Chernobyl (2019), and the James Bond film No Time to Die (2021).
Dencik is a two-time Robert Award winner, for Best Actor in a Leading Role for A Soap (2006) and Robert Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Television Role for The Chestnut Man (2021). He won a Guldbagge Award for Best Supporting Actor for The Perfect Patient (2019). He is also a seven-time Bodil Award nominee.
Dencik was born in Stockholm, Sweden. The same year he was born, the family moved to Denmark, where he spent his upbringing. As a teenager, Dencik studied in Brazil, where he discovered capoeira, the Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance and music. The dance aspect of Capoeira made him take an interest in theatre.[1] In 1999 he moved back to Stockholm after being accepted to the Swedish National Academy of Mime and Acting where he graduated in 2003.[2]
His Slovak last name Denčík comes from his paternal grandfather, a Czechoslovak who hailed from Liptovský Mikuláš in present day Slovakia. In 1939 he obtained asylum in Sweden to escape the Nazi persecution of Jews in Slovakia. In Sweden he met David Dencik's paternal grandmother, a Swede. She bore a son, Lars Dencik, David's father, a social psychologist. Dencik's mother Kerstin Allrot is a Swedish former film historian and producer.[3] [4][5] His wife is a lawyer who works in Copenhagen.[2] Dencik is based in Denmark, but since his work takes him to Sweden he also has an apartment in Stockholm.
After having had minor roles in different films, David Dencik became an established actor in Sweden for his role as the killer John Ausonius in the three-part TV mini-series Lasermannen in 2005.
In 2006, he starred in the comedy Everything About My Bush (known as Allt om min buske in Swedish). In 2007, he appeared in the Danish feature film Daisy Diamond directed by Simon Staho.
He portrayed Fred Åkerström in the biographical film Cornelis, starring Hank Von Helvete as Cornelis Vreeswijk. In 2011, he appeared in the Hollywood-adaption of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and played Toby Esterhase in the film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. He also starred in the gay-themed Brotherhood and the Dimension Films thriller Regression. In 2017 he played brothel owner Alexander "Puss" Braun, in Jane Campion's acclaimed Top of the Lake. McMafia (2018) saw Dencik play Russian Boss, Uncle Boris Godman, inspired by the book McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld (2008) by journalist Misha Glenny.[6] Dencik then portrayed a rogue scientist Valdo Obruchev in the James Bond film No Time to Die (2021).[7]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Reconstruction | Bartender | |
| 2007 | All About My Bush | Henning | |
| Daisy Diamond | Jens | ||
| 2008 | Not Like Others | Taxi Driver | |
| 2009 | The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo | Janne Dahlman | Swedish version |
| Brotherhood | Jimmy | ||
| 2010 | Rosa Morena | Jakob | |
| 2011 | War Horse | German Base Camp Officer | |
| Room 304 | Martin | ||
| Rebounce | Marcel | ||
| Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy | Toby Esterhase | ||
| The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo | Young Morell | English version | |
| 2012 | A Royal Affair | Ove Høegh-Guldberg | |
| All That Matters Is Past | Ruud | ||
| Hamilton: In the Interest of the Nation | Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden | ||
| 2013 | We Are the Best! | Klara's father | |
| 2014 | The Absent One | Ulrik Dybbøl | |
| Serena | Mr. Buchanan | ||
| 2015 | Regression | John Gray | |
| Men & Chicken | Gabriel | ||
| 2016 | Across the Waters | Arne Itkin | |
| 2017 | Backstabbing for Beginners | Rasnetsov | [8] |
| The Snowman | Dr. Idar Vetlesen | ||
| 2019 | Waiting for the Barbarians | The Clerk | |
| The Perfect Patient | Thomas Quick | ||
| 2021 | No Time to Die | Valdo Obruchev | |
| 2022 | Black Crab | Colonel Raad | |
| Diorama | Björn | ||
| Attachment | Lev | ||
| Kysset | |||
| 2023 | Together 99 (Tillsammans 99) | Peter |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Lasermannen | John Ausonius | 3 episodes |
| 2011–12 | Lykke | Professor Anders Assing | 18 episodes |
| 2013 | The Borgias | Cardinal Orsini | 2 episodes |
| 2016 | Follow the Money | Simon Absalonsen | 10 episodes |
| 2017 | Top of the Lake: China Girl | Puss | 6 episodes |
| Genius | Niels Bohr | 3 episodes | |
| 2018 | McMafia | Boris Godman | 2 episodes |
| 2019 | Quicksand | Peder Sander | 6 episodes |
| Chernobyl | Mikhail Gorbachev | 3 episodes | |
| 2021 | The Chestnut Man | Simon Genz | 6 episodes |
| 2022 | The Ipcress File | Colonel Stok | 6 episodes |
| Love & Anarchy | Filip | 1 episode | |
| The Kingdom | Bosse | 3 episodes | |
| Vuxna människor | Nathan | 8 episodes |
