Pilou Asbaek made his screen debut in the 2008 Danish drama film ‘Worlds Apart’ directed by Niels Arden Oplev. The film was selected to represent Denmark at the 2009 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2010, Asbaek starred as ‘Rune’ in the Danish prison drama film ‘R’ directed by Tobias Lindholm and Michael Noer. The film received a positive response from critics and holds a 91% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Asbaek also became a recipient of the ‘Bodil Award’ for his performance in the film. That same year, he also appeared in the Larysa Kondracki-directed Canadian-German-American biographical crime drama film, ‘The Whistleblower.’ The film received mixed to positive reviews from critics and earned a 75% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Asbaek was next seen in films like ‘Bora Bora’ (2011), ‘Kapringen’ (2012), and ‘Spies & Glistrup’ (2013). He played the role of ‘Richard’ in the 2014 English-language French science fiction action film ‘Lucy’ directed by Luc Besson. The film received mostly positive reviews from critics and was a massive box office success, grossing over $463.4 million on a budget of $39 million. The same year, he also starred in the Danish crime mystery film ‘The Absent One’ directed by Mikkel Nørgaard. The film has a 92% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
He next appeared in films like ‘9. April’ (2015), ‘Krigen’ (2015), ‘Ben-Hur’ (2016), and ‘The Great Wall’ (2016). In 2016, Asbaek joined the cast of the American fantasy drama television series ‘Game of Thrones’ where he portrayed ‘Euron Greyjoy.’ He starred in 9 episodes and parted ways from the show in 2019. He next starred in films like ‘Ghost in the Shell’ (2017), ‘Woodshock’ (2017), ‘Murderous Trance’ (2018), ‘Overlord’ (2018), ‘Run Sweetheart Run’ (2020), and ‘Outside the Wire’ (2021). He was last seen in the 2022 American action-adventure film ‘Uncharted’ directed by Ruben Fleischer. While the film received a mixed response from critics, it still managed to gross over $401.7 million on a budget of $120 million. He will be next seen in the upcoming American superhero film ‘Samaritan.’