Ann Petrén

Ann Louise Maria Petrén was born 25 May 1954 in Västerås to Folke Petrén [sv] and Maud Jacobsson.^[1][2] Her father was an executive at Svenska Metallverken [sv].^[3] She was educated at Malmö Theatre Academy from 1976–1979.^[1]

In 1988, she became a permanent member of the ensemble at Stockholm City Theatre.^[4] Her first role was in a production of Staffan Göthe's A Stuffed Dog.^[5]

She played a long-suffering wife of an alcoholic womanizer in the 1992 coming-of-age film Night of the Orangutan, also known as My Great Big Daddy.^[6]

In 2003, she played Anita in Daybreak [sv]. Stephen Holden wrote of her performance for The New York Times, "Petrén's avenging demon, in particular, is as frightening a surrogate for every wife who has been dumped for a younger woman as the screen has produced."^[7] For this role, she received a Guldbagge Award for Best Actress, the Jarl Kulle Scholarship, and the Swedish Theatre Critics Association Award.^[8]

Petrén starred in Björn Runge's 2011 film Happy End [sv]. She played Jonna, a widowed driving instructor. The film premiered at the San Sebastián International Film Festival.^[9] She received her second Guldbagge Award for Best Actress and the Dagens Nyheters Culture Prize [sv] for Happy End.^[10]

She had a supporting role in Border, a 2018 fantasy-thriller film directed by Ali Abbasis.^[11]

She starred opposite Frida Westerdahl [sv] in Björn Runge's play Jag är en annan nu (English: I am different now). Her performance received praise in Dagens Nyheter and Västerbottens-Kuriren.^[12][13]

In 2022, she played a domineering drama teacher in a production of Staffan Valdemar Holm's Månen och de andra planeterna (English: The moon and other planets) at Stockholm City Theatre. Later that year she also acted in Lars Norén's Temps Morte.^[3]

In 2002, she married Bengt Berger.^[14]