Åsleik Engmark

Career

Engmark was one of the co-founders of the Norwegian cabaret group Lompelandslaget in 1987. The following year, at the age of 22, he made his solo debut at Det Norske Teatret (The Norwegian Theatre) in Oslo, in the Norwegian original cast of Les Misérables, the third Cameron Mackintosh Les Mis production in the world. He stayed in the ensemble of Det Norske Teatret until 1999. In Norway he became known during the 1990s through Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), especially on the weekly satire Egentlig, an equivalent to Saturday Night Live. He was also well known for his many dubbing film voices, such as Timon in the Norwegian version of The Lion King.

In 2009 Engmark made his debut as a film director, with the children's movie Knerten (Twigson English version) (Mein Freund Knerten German version). The movie became a box office hit and was seen by more than 375000 viewers in Norway. Among many festivals, it participated in the official Generation K Plus section of the Berlinale 2010. Knerten was awarded Best Children's movie, Best Art Design and Best Visual Effects at the Norwegian Film Awards 2010 Amandaprisen.

In 2010, he won the Norwegian version of Strictly Come Dancing, called Skal vi danse

Engmark directed, performed and wrote in many different artistic directions. He performed comedy in both Norwegian and English, and won the Norwegian Stå Opp-Prisen (Stand Up Award) in 2001.

Personal life and death

Engmark lived in Oslo his entire life. In 1997, he married Helle Engmark, his partner of several years. They divorced in 2012.

On 12 February 2017, while in Brussels visiting family, Engmark died suddenly due to an undisclosed medical emergency. He was 51 years old.

Selected film and television actor appearances

Selected theatre and stage appearances

Selected directing, writing, composing