Benja Bruijning

Bruijning starred as a series regular in a number of television series, including Heirs of the Night (2019-2020), Nieuwe Buren (2018-2019) directed by Bobby Boermans, Vechtershart (2015-2017) about K1 fighters in which Benja plays a drug addicted lawyer, Zwarte Tulp (2015-2016) and Bellicher (2010-2013). Additionally, he took on leading roles in the Netflix series Dirty Lines (2022), Follow de SOA (2021), De 12 van Schouwendam (2019) and Moedermaffia (2022) for Videoland.

At a young age, Benja had success in several award-winning films such as Dichter op de Zeedijk (2000) and De Grot (2001). He then went on to appear in De Bende van Oss (2011), which is based on the true events that took place in the Dutch town of Oss during the 1930’s, when crooks and criminals ruled the streets and Hoe Duur was de Suiker (2013), a historical drama about The Netherlands’ colonial history in Surinam. In 2018 Benja was honored with the Best Actor award at the Noida International Film Festival in India for his role in De Terugkeer van de Wespendief (2017). That same year he took on the lead role in the feature film De Matchmaker (2018).

More recent projects include hit series Dag & Nacht (2023), he starred opposite Noortje Herlaar in Net als in de film (2023), the thrilling series De Sphinx (2024) directed by Diederik van Rooijen, BNNVARA drama series De Ring (2024) and the upcoming youth drama series Hein (2024). Next year, Benja will star in the Dutch Netflix comedy series Haantjes, set to premiere on Netflix in 2025.

On stage he played the Tom Cruise role in the theatre adaptation of Rain Man (2012) and starred in classic plays such as Much Ado about Nothing (2012) and Lulu (2016). Benja wrote his first play in 2010, Not Meant That Way, which opened to raving reviews. In 2022, he appeared in the theater with the monologue Een Leven, a piece by Nick Payne.