Icelandic Actress Thelma Gudmunds Exquisite Talent And Knack For Comedy!
Iceland is an incredible place. It not only has inexpensive heating, hot water and electricity thanks to geothermal energy and hydroelectricity, but it also has bragging rights that it was settled by Vikings. The Scandinavian based culture has also produced some famous and very prominent Icelanders in the entertainment and sports categories. Names like the musician Bjork Gudmundsdottir, the band Of Monsters and Men, International actor and director Baltasar Kormákur and Eiður Smári Guðjohnsen, one of the country’s most famous soccer/football players are just a few of the many talented Icelanders who have become famous beyond the island’s borders. Another Icelander whose talents are bringing high praise from critics and audiences alike is actress Thelma Gudmunds.
Thelma initially studied social science and psychology in school and then moved to France to focus on Literature and the History of Art and Poetry at the University of Bordeaux III. Once she realized she had a great affinity for acting she took classes at Jack Waltzer’s Actor Studio Workshop in Paris and then attended the Cours Florent in Paris where she immersed herself in theatre. She finally settled in London and was offered a place in the acting course at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts and was awarded a BA Honors Acting Degree.
Her showcase performance enabled her to leave the school with a fantastic review of her work by Paul Vale for ‘The Stage.’ A partial quote of the review is: “A few of the students tackled monologues, but few with as much success as Thelma Gudmunds. With barely a hint of her natural Icelandic accent, she gave an hilarious account of the single female preparing a dating video from Loveplay by Moira Buffini.”
We have been lucky enough to see some of Thelma’s work and she truly is wonderful. She can really act, that is, she can get into a character’s persona and not only is she convincing in the part, but the audience actually believes she is that character. Thelma’s beautiful face can become anything Thelma wants it to become. She can be overjoyed, sad and angry and she can definitely be funny too -as witnessed, in her stand-up comedy acts, where she doesn’t fail to keep audiences amused. She’s a great actress and the expertise and passion she pours into her thespian activities is constantly evident in all of her performances. She is a renaissance woman in the sense that she is talented and skilled in so many ways. She will no doubt be Iceland’s most famous international import sooner than she thinks.
