Alicia Amanda Vikander was born on 3 October 1988. She is a Swedish actress and dancer. Born and raised in Gothenburg, she began acting as a child in minor stage productions at The Göteborg Opera and trained as a ballet dancer at the Royal Swedish Ballet School in Stockholm and the School of American Ballet in New York. She began her professional acting career by appearing in Swedish short films and television series and first gained recognition in Northern Europe for her role as Josefin Björn-Tegebrandt in the TV drama Andra Avenyn (2008–10).