The Skarsgård Family: Everything to Know

Between Stellan Skarsgård and his eight children — Alexander, Gustaf, Sam, Bill, Eija, Valter, Ossian and Kolbjörn — there is no shortage of talent in the Skarsgård family.

Stellan is a celebrated actor both in his native Sweden and stateside, appearing in more than 100 films throughout his decades-long career — including Good Will Hunting, Thor, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Dune, to name a few. But Stellan isn’t the only Skarsgård in Hollywood: The Swedish star has passed along his acting chops to six of his seven sons.

Having seven Skarsgårds working as actors (Stellan’s youngest boys are child actors) seems like it would lead to some natural competition among the large family — but the opposite is actually true, according to Gustaf, who is best known for his roles in Vikings and Westworld.

“Luckily, we are different in type and age, so there hasn’t been a lot of competition for specific parts,” he told Sweden’s Schön! magazine in 2018. “There is competition to the point that we can actually make fun of it — we’ll keep scores and laugh about it. At the end of the day, we’re in this industry to have fun,” adding, “We’re a very close family, and we’ve always been supportive of one another.”

Stellan shared a similar sentiment with The Daily Beast in 2021, joking: “There’s no competition, really. There’s some joking competition at the dinner table, but I know they’re better than me, so I’ve given up.”

That also means that seeing their dad in a major blockbuster is no big deal to them.

“I think they think everybody’s in major blockbuster. All their siblings are in major blockbuster. I mean, that’s a way of life for them. It is weird,” Stellan told PEOPLE at the New York premiere of Dune 2 in February 2024.

Acting isn’t the only thing the Skarsgärds are good at, either: The family also counts models, film producers and doctors among them. Stellan insists, however, that there is no secret to raising such a gifted brood.

“I have never had ambitions for them, other than that they should be decent people,” he told The Guardian.

Keep reading for everything to know about the Skarsgård family.

Stellan Skarsgård

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Stellan, the patriarch of the Skarsgård family, was born June 13, 1951, in Gothenburg, Sweden. He started his acting career early, first appearing in school productions and later landing his first major role in 1968, when he starred in the hit Swedish television show Bombi Bitt. The show made Stellan a teen idol in his native Sweden.

“It was like being a pop star,” Stellan recalled to The Independent in 2020. “Screaming girls and all that s—.”

The television series was just the beginning of what would become a five-decade-long (and counting) acting career for Stellan, ranging from notable Swedish films to major Hollywood blockbusters. He’s particularly well known for his collaborations with Danish director Lars von Trier, appearing in six of his projects including Melancholia and the controversial Nymphomaniac.

“We’ve grown to be friends, and we did that pretty quickly, actually, because I liked him so much as a person,” Stellan told Slant magazine about von Trier in 2014. “He’s one of the most technically skillful directors in the world.”

Stateside, Stellan has appeared in everything from Pirates of the Caribbean and Thor to Mamma Mia! and Good Will Hunting. And even in his 70s, Stellan’s career shows no signs of slowing down: He picked up a Golden Globe in 2020 for his role in the HBO miniseries Chernobyl, starred opposite Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya in 2021’s Dune and appeared in the Star Wars prequel series Andor on Disney+ in 2022.

“For being a Swede with an accent, I have been extremely successful internationally, so I can’t complain,” Stellan told The Daily Beast in 2020. “I’m a solid f—— actor, and I’d rather be an actor than a star.”

Stellan’s family tree is almost as extensive as his acting resumé. The actor has been married twice: First to My Skarsgård from 1975 until their divorce in 2007 and then to film producer Megan Everett in 2009. Stellan and My share six children together (Alexander, Gustaf, Sam, Bill, Eija and Valter), while he and Megan have two sons (Ossian and Kolbjörn).

“I’ve had two beautiful wives — and very smart wives — and that’s helped a lot. I’m not going to take much credit for anything,” Stellan told The Daily Beast about his brood of 8 children.

Alexander Skarsgård

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The eldest Skarsgård sibling, Alexander, was born on Aug. 25, 1976, in Stockholm. Alexander nabbed his first film role at just 7 years old, starring opposite Stellan in 1984’s Åke och hans värld, according to the Los Angeles Times. He followed that up with the lead role in the 1989 Swedish hit Hunden Som Log, but the fame and attention that followed led him to quit acting. Instead, he joined the Swedish Armed Forces at the age of 19.

“It was my way of going off into the unknown,” Alexander told GQ in 2011 about his time in the military. “I didn’t want to just be somebody’s son.”

But after completing 18 months of military service, it was a visit to see his father in L.A. that reignited his acting career. “I obviously didn’t have representation out there but [my father’s] agent asked, ‘You’re in town, would it be fun to go to an audition? Do you think that’d be interesting?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, it’d be a great story to tell my friends back home.’ ” Alexander recalled to Good Morning America in 2018. That audition resulted in his first American acting gig, the 2001 comedy Zoolander.

It was HBO, however, that would truly launch Alexander’s acting career. He earned critical acclaim when he landed a lead role in the 2008 HBO miniseries Generation Kill and became a household name appearing on the HBO hit series True Blood for seven years. Then, in 2017, he starred as an abusive husband opposite Nicole Kidman in HBO’s miniseries Big Little Lies — a role that would earn him an Emmy, a SAG Award and a Golden Globe in 2018.

“It felt like such a honest and nuanced portrayal and depiction of an abusive relationship,” Alexander told EW about his role on Big Little Lies. “It wasn’t lazy in the way it was portrayed. It wasn’t cliché.”

Since his Big Little Lies success, Alexander has also appeared in the CBS miniseries The Stand, returned to HBO for season three of Succession and reunited with Kidman in the 2022 epic Viking thriller The Northman. But despite his acting achievements, Alexander still has difficulty fully enjoying his success.

“I sometimes have a hard time allowing myself to enjoy a moment. I’m not good at sitting and feeling that I’ve achieved something,” he shared with GQ in 2022. “I’m trying to allow myself, with humility, to take more joy in my accomplishments.”

In March 2023, the actor confirmed to Entertainment Tonight that he had welcomed his first baby with girlfriend Tuva Novotny.

Gustaf Skarsgård

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Born on Nov. 12, 1980, in Stockholm, Gustaf took the earliest interest in acting out of all of his siblings. By the age of 6, he knew he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and was already attending drama school in Sweden.

“To any child, the first occupations that are presented to you are your parents’,” he told Interview magazine in 2017. “I was appealed to my dad’s occupation from the get-go.”

As a teen, Gustaf turned down roles in soaps and instead attended the Swedish National Academy of Mime and Acting for college. “I was really pretentious in a sense and was like, I’m going to drama school, to learn the craft,” he shared with Interview. His early career was in theater, performing with the Royal Dramatic Theater in Stockholm until his first major film role came in the 2003 Swedish horror film Evil.

Gustaf’s stateside big break came with the 2010 film The Way Back. The second eldest Skarsgård sibling is perhaps best known, however, for his television work: He played Floki on the History Channel series Vikings from 2013 to 2020, nabbed his “dream role” on the second season of HBO’s Westworld in 2018 and starred in the 2020 Netflix series Cursed.

“I expected to be doing basement theater in the suburbs of Stockholm,” Gustaf told Interview about his career. “But here I am.”

In a November 2021 Instagram post, Gustaf revealed that he has another important role: Father. “Eternal gratitude to the most high for bestowing upon me the greatest gift of my life: her life. One year ago tomorrow she came and brought a dimensional shift to my universe,” he wrote alongside a picture of himself and his baby daughter. “Love is too futile a word.”

Sam Skarsgård

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Sam Skarsgård, who was born on June 5, 1982, in Sweden, also followed his parent’s footsteps when it came to his career — but instead of pursuing acting like his father and older brothers, he went into medicine like his mother My. “We’re either actors or doctors,” Alexander told The Inquirer about his family in 2013. “Mom went through medical school while raising six kids and taking care of the household.”

Alexander and his younger brother Bill spoke more about Sam’s medical career in a conversation with Interview magazine in 2017. “He works at an ICU so he, on a daily basis, saves lives,” Alexander said.

Bill continued, emphasizing that their mother and brother’s careers in medicine trumped the rest of the family’s in Hollywood. “There’s definitely a sense of embarrassment about what it is artists really do, at least for me in terms of acting. We have a mom and a brother who literally save lives.”

Bill Skarsgård

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The fourth boy born to Stellan and My was son Bill, who arrived on Aug. 9, 1990. Bill was also enamored by his father’s career as a child — but questioned his acting ambitions as a teen.

“I wanted to be an actor ever since I was a little kid,” he told PEOPLE in 2016. “But as I got into my teenage years I thought, is it really me wanting this or because I want to follow in my dad’s footsteps?”

After studying science in high school, Bill realized his true passion was acting and set out to establish his own career. However, he wanted to do so without the help of his already famous father and big brothers.

“I’ve always felt a very strong need to do it myself,” he said to PEOPLE. “The association with my brothers and my father is already so big, I didn’t want them to have anything to do with what I did. I needed them to feel that I am completely responsible for what I do.”

After some initial success in Sweden, Bill landed a role on the Netflix series Hemlock Grove in 2013. From there, he appeared in Allegiant in 2016, Deadpool 2 in 2018 and was a series regular on Hulu’s Castle Rock the same year. But perhaps his most recognizable role was that of Pennywise the Clown in the 2017 horror film It and the 2019 sequel It Chapter Two.

“I was really excited to do a full character transformation into something that’s so far away from who I am in every way,” Bill told PEOPLE about playing Pennywise.

Bill plays another villainous role opposite Keanu Reeves in 2023’s John Wick: Chapter 4. He was also cast as the lead role in the upcoming reboot of the action thriller The Crow, according to Deadline.

The Crow isn’t the only projects he has in the works right now. When Boy Kills World hits theaters on April 26, fans can see Bill play a man seeking revenge after his family was murdered when he was a child.

In his personal life, things are much less scary: Bill has been linked to Swedish actress Alida Morberg since 2016, and the pair welcomed a daughter together in October 2018.

Eija Skarsgård

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The lone daughter in the Skarsgård crew is Eija, who was born on Feb. 27, 1992, in Sweden. According to Stellan, Eija enjoys being the only girl in the large family.

“During each of my wives’ subsequent pregnancies, my daughter would say, ‘I hope it’s not a girl,’ ” he told The Guardian about Eija in 2015. “She’s very strong, stronger in many ways than the boys, and relishes her position.”

Eija is one of the few Skarsgård siblings who is not an actor, but she did spend time in front of the camera as a model. She met her husband, Zeke Tastas, in a nightclub in December 2011 and the two were married on Aug. 24, 2019. “[I] am so lucky that I got my dream. I love you Zeke!” Eija wrote in a romantic tribute on Instagram.

Valter Skarsgård

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Born on Oct. 25, 1995, in Sweden, Valter is the youngest child of Stellan and My. He, too, has embarked on a career in acting, just like his elder siblings and father.

“I thought I was going to be the youngest one,” older brother Bill said in an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! about his fellow siblings who act. “And then my little brother, who is five years younger and better looking, started.”

Valter’s acting resumé includes primarily Swedish productions, but in recent years he appeared in the BBC series Black Lake from 2016 to 2018 and the 2021 Netflix series Katla.

More recently, Valter starred in the title role in Börje — The Journey of a Legend, a six-part series that tells the story of Swedish hockey player Börje Salming, who played for the Toronto Maple Leafs and became the first European inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Salming died in 2022 after a battle with ALS.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, Valter opened up about how important it was to him to get the role right.

“I was looking forward so much to sharing this whole ride. Even though I got his seal of approval, the pressure was on. I wanted him to hold my hand. I wanted him to lead me through this. When he wasn’t able to, it was terrifying,” he said. “I felt even more pressure. This has to be good. I have to nail it.”

The youngest Skarsgård in Hollywood has poked fun at his acting status compared to his older brothers and father on Twitter. “It’s hilarious that I’m here but not dad,” he responded to a tweet that showed him, along with brothers Alexander, Gustaf and Bill, beneath an interview quote from Alexander that reads: “If you need a Skarsgård for a movie and one of us isn’t available, it’s like, ‘How about this one?’ ”

The viral exchange led to Valter being dubbed a “Twitter king” by EW. Off camera, he appears to enjoy a close relationship with his older sister Eija, according to his Instagram. “Dynamic Duo – From childhood to tombstone!,” he captioned a series of photos of the two. In another post, he joked that Eija taught him “everything I know! Even the way to dress!”

Ossian Skarsgård

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Stellan welcomed his seventh child — and first with wife Megan Everett — Ossian Skarsgård in 2009.

Although Ossian is only a teenager, he has already entered the family business of acting. He starred alongside older brother Bill in the 2022 Swedish film Bränn Alla Mina Brev, which translates to Burn All My Letters.

Ossian has also joined his famous family on the red carpet over the years, attending the Stockholm premieres of It Chapter 2 in 2019 and Netflix’s Clark in 2022, both of which starred Bill.

Kolbjörn Skarsgård

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Kolbjörn is the youngest sibling of the Skarsgård clan. He was born in 2012.

Like his father and majority of his older brothers, Kolbjörn is a child actor. He held his first role alongside brother Bill in the 2022 Netflix series Clark.

He also played Mio in the Swedish television series Kenny Starfighter, according to his mother’s Instagram.

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Source: HIS Education