Carice Anouk van Houten was born in Leiderdorp (near Leiden) on 5 September 1976. Her parents are Margje Stasse, who is on the board of Dutch educational TV, and writer and broadcaster Theodore van Houten. She is the elder sister of actress and designer Jelka van Houten. Her paternal grandmother was Scottish. When she was five, her father took her to a screening of Abel Gance's epic Napoléon vu par Abel Gance (1927), which fascinated her. She has demonstrated great interest in cinema since. Carice convincingly demonstrated her acting talents at the Bonifatius Lyceum high school, "Utrecht", in the early 90s. One of her first parts was the title role in Hugo Claus' play, "Tijl Uilenspiegehel". She also developed a skill in clarinet playing. In 1995, she was rather uniquely accepted by both the Maastricht and Amsterdam drama academies, and started her TV career (Labyrint, VPRO TV 1997) as a student of the Kleinkunst Academie Amsterdam. There, she was awarded the 1999 Pisuisse Prize, and the 2000 Top Naeff Prize for her theatre work. A day before the Top Naeff Prize, she was awarded the 'Gouden Kalf' as best TV actress in Martin Koolhoven's Suzy Q (1999). In 2001, she starred in AmnesiA (2001), by the same director. In September 2000, she joined the Noord-Nederlands Toneel, starring as a both singing and acting "Polly" in a contemporary staging of the Threepenny Opera to fabulously stunning reviews. Her great talent for dark comedy was demonstrated in a parody on Les lumières de la ville (1931)' blind girl in the Amsterdam Kleine Komedie. Carice is a great admirer of American silent comedies - particularly Charles Chaplin and Laurel & Hardy - although she can display an equally dramatic talent. In 2001, she made Miaou! (2001), in the title role of the cat-woman after Annie M.G. Schmidt. In the 2001-02 season, she won the main role in a theatre production of Schmidt's musical, "Foxtrot".
Van Houten's role in Black Book (2006) launched her international career. She went on to play in films such as Walkyrie (2008), alongside Tom Cruise, who asked for her to specifically play his wife after seeing her performance in "Zwartboek". However, after this, her international career was unsuccessful, until she was offered the role of "Melisandre" in the HBO series, Game of Thrones (2011), in 2011.
