Alexander Skarsgård is making his Saturday Night Live hosting debut with Musical Guest Cardi B on January 31, and it’s about time.
The actor, who was born in Sweden in 1976, landed his first U.S. role in 2001’s Zoolander and started becoming a well-known name in America around 2008, thanks to True Blood. Part of a famous Scandinavian acting family, Skarsgård starred in the trippy HBO drama as Eric Northman, a Viking-turned-vampire who ruled over other New Orleans-area vampires. Since then he’s taught audiences to expect the unexpected, whether it’s his latest role in the 2026 movie Pillion or his red carpet outfits, demonstrating a love of commitment, absurdity, and daring that could make his first episode of SNL an all-timer.
As the Succession actor prepares to wow audiences in Studio 8H, let’s take a look back at Skarsgård’s career and his wildly varied roles in movies and TV.
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Alexander Skarsgård comes from a showbiz family including brother Bill Skarsgård
Alexander is the oldest son of Stellan Skarsgård, a prolific Swedish actor. While he just earned an Oscar nomination for the 2025 movie Sentimental Value, Stellan Skarsgård has appeared in American projects since the 1980s. You might’ve seen him in The Hunt for Red October (1990), Good Will Hunting (1997), Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2001), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006), Mamma Mia! (2008), Melancholia (2011), The Avengers (2012), and Dune (2021, 2024), just to name a few. He also starred in TV shows like Chernobyl (2019) and Andor (2022).
Stellan has eight children total, and seven of them — Alexander, Gustaf, Bill, Elja, Valter, Ossian, and Kolbjörn work in the entertainment industry. In addition to playing Pennywise the Clown in the two-part It movie, Alexander’s brother Bill Skarsgård portrayed the titular monster in Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu.
Elja Skarsgård, the family’s sole daughter, is a casting director, while her brothers are all actors. Eight sibling Sam Skarsgård, meanwhile, followed in mother My Skarsgård’s footsteps and became an ICU doctor.
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Alexander Skarsgård starred in Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” video
Just as True Blood was taking off, Skarsgård appeared in the music video for Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi,” from her first album, The Fame.
“It was the very beginning, so the show hadn’t aired yet, and my friend Jonas Akerlund, a Swedish guy, he’s a director, and he was gonna direct the music video,” Skarsgård told Jimmy Fallon in 2019. “He called me and asked if I wanted to play the boyfriend…I didn’t know who [Lady Gaga] was. He said, ‘Hear me out: You wear an eye patch, and you throw her off a balcony of a beautiful mansion in Malibu. She doesn’t die. She comes back, and she poisons you.’ And I said, ‘That’s a beautiful, beautiful story.'”
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Alexander Skarsgård starred in blockbusters like The Legend of Tarzan after his American movie debut in Zoolander
Skarsgård’s career further took off with roles in 2011’s Melancholia (alongside his father), Battleship (alongside Rihanna) and The Giver (alongside Taylor Swift).
After True Blood wrapped in 2014, Skarsgård played the king of the jungle in The Legend of Tarzan (2016), befriended King Kong in 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong, and produced and starred in the 2022 Viking movie The Northman (no relation to True Blood‘s viking Eric Northman!), followed by 2023’s Infinity Pool.
In 2026, he stars in the films Pillion and Wicker and plays the director of Charli xcx’s “Brat” tour in her semi-fictional A24 film The Moment, which hits theaters on January 30.
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Alexander Skarsgård earned Emmy nominations for TV roles in Big Little Lies and Succession
Alexander Skarsgård won an Emmy for playing Nicole Kidman’s husband in Big Little Lies, and earned his second and third Emmy nominations for playing Lukas Matsson on Succession. But evidently, he doesn’t let the honors go to his head.
“I was born and raised in Sweden, and we have something in Sweden called Jantelagen, ‘the law of janta,'” he told Stephen Colbert in 2018. “It’s a real thing. And it basically means, don’t think you’re special. It’s more like a code of conduct,” he explained, saying it entails “no ostentatious flaunting of your accolades or bragging about your achievements or anything.”
“So if you ever — like, if something great happens or you, or achieve something, Swedes get very embarrassed and they apologize,” he grinned.
After starring as Randall Flagg in the Stephen King miniseries The Stand from 2020 to 2021, Skarsgård made guest appearances on the TV series Atlanta, Documentary Now!, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and What We Do in the Shadows, where he paid homage to his True Blood role playing an Eric Northman-esque vampire. And in 2025, Skarsgård took on the titular role in the sci-fi comedy Murderbot as a private security robot that secretly becomes sentient.
Watch Alexander Skarsgård host Saturday Night Live on January 31 with Musical Guest Cardi B at 11:30 ET/10:30 CT/8:30 PT on NBC and Peacock, streaming next-day on Peacock.