Swedish actress Alicia Vikander began her performing career in stage productions in her home town with the Gothenburg Opera, before training as a dancer at the Royal Swedish Ballet School in Stockholm and then the School of American Ballet in New York. After some TV and short film work in Sweden, Alicia’s feature film debut was PURE in 2010 and she gained widespread recognition two years later as Princess Ekaterina ‘Kitty’ Alexandrovna Scherbatskaya in Joe Wright’s adaption of ANNA KARENINA. She followed that up as Vera Brittain in TESTAMENT OF YOUTH and a humanoid robot in EX MACHINA, which earned her BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations. This year she won the Best Supporting Actress SAG and Academy Awards for her role as artist Gerda Wegener in THE DANISH GIRL.

Alicia signed my portrait sketch for me at the UK premiere of her latest film, THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS at the Curzon Mayfair cinema in London last week.