Livia Maria Millhagen (born 23 May 1973) is a Swedish actress known for her roles on stage and screen. She has received various accolades for her work, including the Thalia Prize from Svenska Dagbladet and the Litteris et Artibus royal medal in recognition of outstanding contributions to theatre. She has also been nominated for a Guldbagge Award for Best Actress.
The daughter of artist and The House of Culture director , Millhagen attended Kungsholmens gymnasium and began participating in productions. After graduating from the Malmö Theatre Academy in 1999, she appeared in productions at Uppsala City Theatre and made her feature film debut in Miffo (2003), for which she received critical praise and a Guldbagge nomination. She became a member of the Royal Dramatic Theatre's permanent ensemble, and since appeared in numerous productions. Some of her most critically acclaimed stage performances were playing Lydia Stille in The Serious Game at Stockholm City Theatre (2008) and Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Royal Dramatic Theatre (2019).
In addition to her stage roles, she has continued to appear in film and television productions. She was featured in romantic comedies such as Road to Italy (2005) and (2008), as well as the historical drama films Everlasting Moments (2008) and ' (2019). She had a major television roles in ' (2013), Veni Vidi Vici (2017), and the first season of Bäckström (2020). She also appeared in Young Royals (2021). Millhagen has also worked as a voice actress for Swedish dubs of Disney/Pixar films including The Good Dinosaur (2015), The Lion King (2019), and Raya and the Last Dragon (2021).
Livia Maria Millhagen was born in Stockholm on 23 May 1973 to and . Her father was a sculptor and cartoonist, while her mother was an art critic and writer who also served as director for The House of Culture. Millhagen has an older sister, and also had an older brother who died shortly after he was born. She was raised in Gamla Stan, until her family moved to Washington, D.C. for three years while her mother worked at the Swedish embassy there. After moving back to Sweden, she attended Kungsholmens gymnasium. She had roles in several productions before being admitted to the Malmö Theatre Academy in the autumn of 1995. In May 1996, about a year into her studies, her father died of cancer. During her 1997 internship at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, she appeared in their production of August Strindberg's Fadren, directed by Staffan Valdemar Holm.
After completing her education, Millhagen was employed at Uppsala City Theatre, where she participated in a number of productions there. She appeared in their production of Rebecca Prichard's play Essex Girls, which was adapted into a Swedish setting by with a new title of Ur funktion. With direction by , the play centred on four teenage girls, played by Millhagen, Alexandra Rapaport, Frida Hallgren, and . In preparation for the role, the actresses met with youths from the Uppsala suburb of Gottsunda. It premiered on 24 September 1999. The following year, she was a member of the ensemble for Lage, a musical revue directed by at in Stockholm. Then she returned to the Uppsala City Theatre, to play the "enterprising" (driftiga) Loretta in Phyllis Nagy's Las Vegas in 2001. The play had again been translated into Swedish by Gredeby and the production was directed by ; it marked the first time that Las Vegas had been staged in Sweden. Millhagen's performance was described as "remarkably good" (anmärkningsvärt bra) by Pia Huss in Dagens Nyheter. She had a supporting role in another Englin-directed work: Sophocles' Ancient Greek tragedy Electra, which premiered on International Women's Day in 2001. Millhagen and Magdalena Eshaya played the title character's best friends, Cissi and Linda. In addition to showings at the Uppsala City Theatre, the production made a guest appearance at the Royal Dramatic Theatre that autumn. The following year, she played a supporting role in the television film Beck â Annonsmannen.
She made her feature film debut in Miffo (2003), directed and written by Daniel Lind Lagerlöf and Malin Lagerlöf, respectively. Millhagen played Carola, a wheelchair user living in a run-down flat with her alcoholic mother, who meets and begins a relationship with Tobias, a sheltered, upper-class minister played by Jonas Karlsson. Millhagen's performance garnered critical praise. In a review for Dagens Nyheter, wrote that Millhagen was "absolutely brilliant in her debut film role" (alldeles utmärkt i sin debutroll pÃÂ¥ duken). Gunnar Rehlin of Variety agreed, stating that she was the "real find" of the film. Millhagen was nominated for a Guldbagge Award for Best Actress for Miffo. She collaborated again with Lagerlöfs for Road to Italy (2005), where she played the lead role of Ylva, a woman who learns about her husband's affair right before taking her choir group on a trip. Her performance was commended by Rehlin in Variety and in Aftonbladet. She played Isabella in Yannis Houvardas's production of William Shakespeare's Measure for Measure at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, which was translated into Swedish by . Millhagen's Isabella was negatively received by in Dagens Nyheter. He suggested she may have been miscast, arguing that her "strained" and "shouting" (pressar rösten och skriker) vocal delivery obscured her character's emotional depth. She had television appearances in ' and '. In 2006, she participated in two productions at the Royal Dramatic Theatre. First, she played Gertrud in I skuggan av Hamlet by . Second, she played the title role in Frank Wedekind's Lulu, translated into Swedish by and directed by . Her performance was described by in a review for Dagens Nyheter as a "strong, modern" (stark, modern) character interpretation centred on a "longing for a lost self" (längtan efter ett förlorat jag). Waaranperä credited her performance as a core strength of the production, as her character transitioned from an object of sexual fantasy to a victim of violence.
In 2007, Millhagen appeared in Sam Shepard's Buried Child, known in Swedish as Hem till gÃÂ¥rden, which premiered at the Elverket stage of the Royal Dramatic Theatre. The production marked her first of many theatre collaborations with director . In 2008, she played Lydia Stille opposite Gustaf SkarsgÃÂ¥rd's Arvid Stjärnblom in Lagerlöf's stage directing debut of The Serious Game at Stockholm City Theatre. Although the production itself received mixed reviews, Millhagen's performance was universally lauded by critics. of Dagens Nyheter stated that it was Lydia's "accurately portrayed rebellion and vulnerability that cuts through the game and makes it serious." In Expressen, criticized the direction and SkarsgÃÂ¥rd's performance but wrote that Millhagen had delivered "an absolutely superb interpretation of the role." She had a supporting role in Maria Blom's low-budget black comedy film ' (2008), as the protagonist's best friend Mio. Hedvig Weibull of BorÃÂ¥s Tidning praised Millhagen's performance, writing that she "brightens up the film like a bold red lipstick" (piffar upp filmen som ett knallrött läppstift).
The Royal Dramatic Theatre added six actors, including Millhagen, to its permanent ensemble in May 2009. Later that year, she and Jonas Karlsson starred as Marianne and Johan in a Larsson-directed production of Ingmar Bergman's 1973 miniseries Scenes from a Marriage. Bergman simplified the story while adapting it for stage during his time in Munich. The stage version had thus not been previously shown in Sweden before the premiere in August 2009. Expressen theatre critic praised the performances of both Millhagen and Karlsson. After 60 sold-out showings at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, a touring production was announced, still featuring Karlsson and Millhagen, in association with the National Swedish Touring Theatre.
She appeared in a stage adaptation of Fanny and Alexander by the Royal Dramatic Theatre. It had an American premiere at the Kennedy Center from 7âÂÂ9 March 2013, as part of the Nordic Cool Festival. She had a leading role as cardiologist Fanny Molander in ' (2013). The series focused on the titular family moving from Stockholm to AlingsÃÂ¥s. The same year, she was one of several actors given the . Millhagen was awarded with a Litteris et Artibus royal medal in 2015 by King Carl XVI Gustaf, in recognition of outstanding contributions to theatre.
She played the titular characters in productions of Medea (2016) and Anna Karenina (2017), both staged at the Royal Dramatic Theatre. Also in 2017, she had a supporting role in Helena Bergström's 2017 dramatic comedy film Mending Hugo's Heart and in the comedy series Veni Vidi Vici. In 2018, she appeared in Sisters 1968.
Millhagen played Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, which premiered at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in 2019. The production was highly praised; Leif Zern wrote for Dagens Nyheter that it was "one of the best Royal Dramatic Theatre performances in many years" (en av de bästa Dramatenföreställningarna pÃÂ¥ mÃÂ¥nga ÃÂ¥r). He highlighted Millhagen's performance as "continuously captivating and gut-wrenching" (oavbrutet fängslande och gastkramande). Her work in A Streetcar Named Desire also earned her the Thalia Prize from Svenska Dagbladet. The same year, she also appeared in Richard Hobert's Faroese drama ' (2019). In a generally negative review for Dagens Nyheter, praised Millhagen's "brilliant" (strÃÂ¥lande) work as a "lively and domineering innkeeper" (livliga och dominanta värdshusvärdinnan).
In 2020, she appeared in the first season of Bäckström as prosecutor Hanna Hwass. She also had a minor role in the first season of Young Royals (2021). She starred opposite Rolf LassgÃÂ¥rd as a divorcing couple clearing out their summer home in ' (2022). She played Rita in Little Eyolf at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in 2024. In a somewhat mixed review for Dagens Nyheter, Maina Arvas described Millhagen as the production's greatest asset. She also wrote that her take on Rita was "an example of what can be done with Ibsen's female roles" (ett exempel pÃÂ¥ vad som gÃÂ¥r att göra med Ibsens kvinnoroller).
She and her husband Oscar Norbeck have two children.