Lars Dittmann Mikkelsen (born 6 May 1964) is a Danish actor. He has played Copenhagen mayoral election candidate Troels Hartmann in the drama series The Killing, Charles Augustus Magnussen in the third series of Sherlock, the Russian president Viktor Petrov in the American House of Cards on Netflix, and Grand Admiral Thrawn in Star Wars Rebels. In 2011, he won the Reumert Prize of Honour.
Mikkelsen was born in Gladsaxe near Copenhagen[citation needed]. He and his younger brother, actor Mads Mikkelsen, were raised in the Nørrebro district. After secondary school, he enlisted for military service in the Royal Danish Army.[citation needed] He then studied biology at the University of Copenhagen but gave up the course to earn his living as a street performer in European cities with his mime and juggling acts.
At the age of 27, he enrolled at the National Theatre School of Denmark from which he graduated in 1995. In addition to his role in the drama series released worldwide as The Killing, he subsequently appeared in two other internationally acclaimed Danish drama series, Those Who Kill and Borgen III. He also had a leading role in an episode of the BBC drama Sherlock as blackmailer Charles Augustus Magnussen. In the American television series House of Cards, he played the president of Russia. He won an International Emmy Award in 2018 for his role in Danish television drama Herrens Veje, which was broadcast in the UK in 2019 as Ride Upon the Storm.

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