AllMovie

Icelandic actress Anita Briem grew up in her native country as the daughter of two musicians (a vocalist and a percussionist), and reportedly turned to acting well before the age of ten, tackling numerous stage roles, radio voice-overs, dramatic parts on television, and a host of other assignments. By all accounts a prodigy with a heightened degree of initiative, Briem moved to England at the age of 16 to begin classical training in theater; by the age of 19, she landed a prestigious three-year enrollment at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. The actress subsequently retained an emphasis on stage work, in productions including Losing Louis and Catalogue of Misunderstanding, then moved into British television (with guest bits on Doctor Who and The Doctors), and finally, embarked on a career in theatrically released features. Her assignments in that venue included Luis de la Madrid's grisly, low-budget horror vehicle The Nun and the Eric Brevig-directed special-effects extravaganza Journey to the Center of the Earth 3-D (2008). Briem was also a main character on the short-lived ABC legal drama The Evidence (2006), but she gained much more small-screen exposure a couple years later when she was cast as Jane Seymour, the third wife of Henry VIII, in the second season of the popular Showtime historical drama The Tudors.