Michiel Huisman

Biography

A major character on a show rarely gets replaced with another actor and audiences go along with it, but that's what happened with Michiel Huisman, who replaced Ed Skrien in the role of Daario Naharis during the fourth season of "Game of Thrones" (HBO 2011- ). 

Huisman had the distinction of being on three big shows at the same time, namely "Thrones," country music drama "Nashville" (ABC 2012- ), where he played producer Liam McGuiniss, and the sci-fi series "Orphan Black" (BBC 2013- ), where he played Cal Morrison, a human who interacting with clones. Huisman was born on July 19, 1981, in Amstelveen, Noord-Holland, which is near Amsterdam. 

Before "Game of Thrones," Huisman had a featured role in the Dutch film "Black Book" (2006), and he played Rudolf Nureyev in the BBC TV movie "Margot" (2009) about prima ballerina Margot Fonteyn. Before he became ubiquitous on television, Huisman also performed in a band called Fontaine which wrote music for soundtracks. (Huisman released a solo album in 2005.) 

Huisman combined his acting and musical talents on the show "Treme" (HBO, 2010-14), where he played Sonny, an addicted musician. Then came Huisman's big break into one of the hottest shows on cable, "Game of Thrones," where he took over the role of Daario Naharis. Huisman was given a lot of leeway to approach the character and re-interpret Daario his way. 

The creators of "Game of Thrones" felt that viewers would adapt to the transition between actors well, and Huisman was indeed accepted by fans of the show. (The fan following and ratings for "Thrones" continued to grow stronger every season.) Huisman also worked regularly in movies such as Brad Pitt's "World War Z" (2013), and the best-seller adaptation "Wild" (2014), starring Reese Witherspoon.