Jón Gnarr

Jón Gnarr was born on January 2, 1967 in Reykjavík. He is a writer, an actor and a director and has written for theatre, radio, television and film, as well as doing stand up. Jón has also worked in music and written songs and lyrics. 

Aside from his work as a writer and actor, Jón is best known for having founded the political party ‚Besti flokkurinn‘ in 2009. In the following year he became the city mayor of Reykjavík, and held that position till 2014. He was a programme director at television station Stöð 2, 2015-2016, a guest lecturer at the School of Theatre and Dance, University of Houston, Texas, in 2017 and a guest writer at the Rice University, also in Houston.

Jón has received numerous prices for film and TV, such as the Edda award for Bjarnfreðarson, Fangavaktin, Dagvaktin, Með mann á bakinu and Fóstbræður. He has been nominated a few times to the Gríman, The Icelandic Performing Arts Award for plays. In 2014 he recieved the International Playwright‘s award for the idea for Hótel Volkswagen and the same year he reiceived Lennon-Ono Grant For Peace award for his work for human rights.