A Guide to Stellan Skarsgård, Alexander Skarsgård's Huge Family

"I grew up in a madhouse," Alexander told Chelsea Handler in 2013 of the bohemian atmosphere cultivated by his parents—Stellan and now ex-wife My Skarsgård—in their Södermalm apartment, "but I thought it was really cool." As brother Bill Skarsgård, 35, put it to Esquire in 2024, it was "just, constantly, open doors, running up and down the staircase."

Though growing up with such a famous father was admittedly weird at times.

“I remember going in grocery stores and my dad would go, ‘Can you go grab the milk in this-or-this aisle?’" Bill said. "And once I walked away from him, I would hear people be like, ‘Do you see who’s here?’ I felt violated; strangers are whispering and talking about my dad.”

But Stellan has long since considered the tables to have turned when it comes to who's known for what.

"I consider myself a nepo daddy because I get so much goodwill and maybe jobs because of them," Stellan told Vulture. At the same time, "I know that they haven’t recommended me for anything, because I didn’t recommend them for anything."

But they got an up-close-and-personal look at the business early on, Stellan bringing his whole family with him when he worked on location up until his kids were in high school.

And he still believes in the more, the merrier.

"You also have to bring your wife’s friends because otherwise she will be alone in a foreign city babysitting," Stellan, who shares six kids with My and two with current with Megan Everett-Skarsgård, explained. "You have to get some of the kids’ friends. They’re a social functioning unit."

When he made 2004's Exorcist: The Beginning in Rome, "I worked 12 hours a day because I was the lead. I barely saw them. I saw them on the weekends. But the house was vibrating with joy because they were having a party."

Now with eight children, plus partners and grandkids, it's a party even if it's only relatives in the house.

"Christmas is like 25 people,” Bill told Esquire. “That’s just immediate family. We’ll have to get our own little island and call it Skarsisland in the future.”

Before they're only accessible by boat, here's a guide to all the Skarsgårds: Born in Gothenburg, Sweden, on June 13, 1951, Stellan Skarsgård starting acting as a teenager in his home country, where he's long since reached national treasure status.

He's a familiar face in Hollywood thanks to films such as The Hunt for Red October, Good Will Hunting, Mamma Mia!, Thor, Dune and Sentimental Value, for which he won a 2026 Golden Globe for supporting actor, as well as roles on HBO's Chernobyl and Disney+'s Andor.

He married doctor My Skarsgård in 1975 and they had six children together—Alexander, Gustaf, Sam, Bill, Eija and Valter—before divorcing in 2007.

"My mom’s gone through a lot," son Bill Skarsgård told Esquire in 2024. "I’m very proud of who she is today. She’s devoted her life to help recovering alcoholics and addicts, which she’s gone through herself." (While largely a private person, My has talked about being in recovery and her work as an addiction counselor.)

Stellan and My welcomed their first child together on Aug. 25, 1976, in Stockholm.

"My dream was for my family to be normal and fit in and be like everybody else’s family," Alexander told Stellan in a 2025 sit-down for Variety. "For you to have a briefcase, that would’ve been fantastic, rather than a weird tote bag that you found in India."

Most people in our family are artists—a lot of eccentric, big personalities that I loved. But the early teens, bringing friends over was always like, 'Oh, God,' because I wanted it to be like everyone else’s household."

The actor known for True Blood, Big Little Lies, The Legend of Tarzan, Succession, Murderbot and more even joined the Swedish Navy at one point to distance himself from all the artistry—and the attention.

"Looking back, I don’t think it was an act of rebellion against you," he told Stellan. "But coming from a bohemian family, I was like, I want to find my own path. The most extreme contrast would be to go into the military. So it wasn’t a conscious 'F--k you, Dad” thing.

Alexander privately welcomed his first child with actress Tuva Novotny in 2023, but he's got time if he still wants to out-reproduce his father.

"My dad had kids in the ’70s, the ’80s, the ’90s, the 2000s and the 2010s," the Emmy winner told Chelsea Handler in 2013. And, he quipped, “I want to beat my dad."

While he splits his time between Sweden and New York, the Skarsgards remain "a very tight group,” Alexander told the New York Times in 2022. “Everyone lives within two blocks of each other in South Stockholm and we see each other all the time when I’m home.”

Gustaf was born Nov. 12, 1980, and started acting at 6, the first of his siblings to take the plunge.

“To any child, the first occupations that are presented to you are your parents’,” the Vikings and West World actor told Interview in 2017. “I was appealed to my dad’s occupation from the get-go.”

At the same time, he wanted to prove himself, turning down soap opera roles he was offered based on name recognition. "I was really pretentious in a sense," he recalled, "and was like, I’m going to drama school, to learn the craft. But in hindsight, I’m really grateful for that 17-year-old that got that early.”

Gustaf shares a daughter, born in 2020, with partner Caroline Sjöström.

Sam, born in 1982, picked up a few acting credits as a child but eventually followed in his mother's footsteps and became a doctor.

"He works at an ICU so he, on a daily basis, saves lives," Alexander said during a 2017 Interview chat with brother Bill.

Added Bill, "There's definitely a sense of embarrassment about what it is artists really do, at least for me in terms of acting. We have a mom and a brother who literally save lives."

Born Aug. 9, 1990, at first Bill wasn't too keen on "being number four," as he put it to Esquire in 2024 regarding his early trepidation about being an actor like his father and two older brothers.

But after breaking through in the U.S. in the series Hemlock Grove, then booking The Divergent Series: Allegiant, Atomic Blonde, It, Barbarian, John Wick: Chapter 4, Nosferatu, etc., fourth has started feeling like first.

Though he also sometimes fantasizes about a job that involves a briefcase—“Something more stable," he said—acting fit him like a glove.

"There are those moments,” Bill explained, “when you’re totally lost in the moment. When during the whole take you never thought once about the fact that you’re doing it. You aren’t acting.”

As for his own domestic life, the It: Welcome to Derry star welcomed a daughter with actress Alida Morberg in 2018 and confirmed in 2023 that they had welcomed her younger sibling.

Eija, Stellan's only daughter, was born in 1992 and works as a casting director for Swedish film and TV.

"During each of my wives' subsequent pregnancies, my daughter would say, 'I hope it's not a girl,'" Stellan told The Guardian in 2015. "She's very strong, stronger in many ways than the boys, and relishes her position."

Eija and husband Zeke Tastas welcomed son Aldous Judo Tastas Skarsgård in September 2025.

The youngest of Stellan and My's six children was born Oct. 25, 1995, and made his acting debut at 8 in the short film To Kill a Child, written and directed by Alexander. Around the same time, he played a younger version of Gustaf's character in the Swedish film Details.

Valter and Bill later played brothers in 2007's Arn: The Knight Templar, with Gustaf in the role of their father.

He's ventured beyond his family's business since, appearing in the horror films Don't Click and Funhouse, as well as the Netflix series The Playlist, about the founding of Spotify (a Swedish company, FYI), and the Canadian hockey series Börje.

Valter made his red carpet debut with girlfriend Melina Göransson in December 2024.

Stellan married wife Megan Everett-Skarsgård in 2009 and they have two children together.

Son Ossian was born April 26, 2009, and his first acting credit was providing the voice of "Young David" in the 2017 film The Wife. Through 2023 he was a regular on the Swedish fantasy series Trolltider - Legenden om Bergatrollet.

Born Aug. 24, 2012, Kolbjörn is the youngest actor in the family (for now), starring on the SVT horror series Blood Cruise. But while his older brothers experienced their own misgivings about taking up their dad's profession, nepo baby accusations have been particularly hard on the teen, according to his father.

"When his pals at school call him nepo baby, he gets so sad," Stellan told Vulture in 2025. "He gets isolated. Cruel kids—or cruel and ignorant. They love it on the internet. But it is such a bulls--t thing. Because nobody would hire you, at least not for anything good, if you’re not good enough."

So far, every Skarsgård that's ventured into acting has been good enough to get called back for more.

Stellan told Alexander during their Variety chat that, while he was pretty shocked when his eldest son joined the military, "I also knew that all you eight kids have different ways of approaching everything. Maybe I’m lazy, but I think it’s best to let you do it on your own."

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