| Vincent van Ommen | |
|---|---|
Van Ommen at the Cannes Film Festival, May 2010 |
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| Born | Vincent van Ommen 14 June 1982 The Hague, The Netherlands |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 2008 – present |
| Website | |
| http://www.vincentvanommen.com | |
Vincent van Ommen is a Dutch actor. He speaks both Dutch and English fluently, and appeared in the English-language films Life is an Art, Amsterdam Heavy and A Morass.
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Van Ommen studied drama at De Trap, a private school for acting in Amsterdam, where he was trained to become a professional actor, after that he took an intense post-course specializing in acting for film and television.[1] He was also trained in film and stage combat by Tony Wolf, the Lord of the Rings fighting styles designer,[2] and took method acting classes. During his studies, van Ommen starred in several commercials and made guest appearances in various TV shows.
In 2008, van Ommen made his mark after he caused a national stir in the media when his short film Stop! - in which he plays a leading role - was released during the International Film Festival Rotterdam.[3] Stop! is about two boys who witness a robbery and decide to chase the thieves by car while filming everything with a mobile phone. The wild chase ends badly for all concerned. Stop! got over 870 thousand views online. Journalists contacted the police thinking it was real. This reached national media, talk shows and news.[4]
From that moment on, van Ommen's career took flight. Within the next few months he landed lead roles in a handful of award winning short films, ranging from romantic comedy to sci-fi, like the Dutch short film Millie, Faith (UK) and Provocator (UK). Shortly after, van Ommen made his English language feature film debut as the immortal Elijah in the urban fantasy film Reiki, which was screened at the Cannes Film Festival 2009.[5] In April 2010, Reiki also screened at the Elf Fantasy Fair, the biggest fantasy event in Europe.
Director Jayant R. Harnam saw one of his short films[6] and was convinced that he would be the perfect actor for the leading role of Nathan Scott in the thriller Life is an Art, in which he stars alongside Alison Carroll (Doghouse, Tomb Raider: Underworld model). This movie was van Ommen's second appearance at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010.
In March 2010 van Ommen played the leading role in the UK neo noir film A Morass, with Alessandro Giuggioli (Me and Orson Welles, Genova), which is now in post-production.[7] He also had a part in the Dutch feature film Verloren Jaren starring Frederik de Groot and Wouter de Jong.
He has recently been cast in the action-film Amsterdam Heavy[8] which stars Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs).