Ulrich Thomsen (born 6 December 1963) is a Danish actor, best known for his role as Christian in the 1998 film The Celebration and as Kai Proctor in the Cinemax original series Banshee (2013–2016). Since 2026, he is currently starring as the DC Comics character Sinestro in the DC Universe, beginning with the superhero crime neo-Western thriller series Lanterns.
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Early and personal life
Ulrich Thomsen was born in (Næsby) Odense, Denmark and graduated from the Danish National School of Theatre and Contemporary Dance in 1993, after which he performed in several theatres in Copenhagen, such as Dr. Dantes Aveny, Mungo Park and Østre Gasværks Teater. He is married to Catherine Ekehed and they have two children, including Alma Ekehed Thomsen, who is an actress. Both Ulrich and his daughter appeared in Face to Face portraying a father, Bjørn and his daughter, Christina.
Aside from his native language Danish, Thomsen is fluent in German and English. He is vegan.
Career
His film debut was in 1994 in Nightwatch, directed by Ole Bornedal. Since then, he has starred in a number of roles including, among others, Thomas Vinterberg's The Biggest Heroes (1996), Susanne Bier's Sekten (1997) and Anders Thomas Jensen's Flickering Lights (2000). The major breakthrough in his career came in the 1998 film Festen followed by an important role in the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough (1999) portraying the part of henchman Sasha Davidov.
This established Thomsen as an international actor, famous outside his native Denmark. He played a part in the 2002 English film Killing Me Softly. In 2009, he played Jonas Skarssen, the lead villain in Tom Tykwer's The International. From 2013 to 2016, he starred as series regular in Banshee playing the role of primary antagonist, Kai Proctor.