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Katja Schuurman
Born	February 19, 1975 (1975-02-19) (age 33) Utrecht, Netherlands
Spouse(s)	Thijs Römer (2006 to date)

Katja Schuurman (born February 19, 1975 in Utrecht, Netherlands) is a Dutch television and film actress, VJ, singer, and television personality.

Biography

Youth

Katja grew up in Bunnik as the eldest daughter of a Dutch father and a Chinese-Surinamese mother; she has a younger sister, Birgit, who went on to become a celebrity as well.

The 1990s

Schuurman made her acting debut in 1992 on the television series Uit de School Geklapt. Two years later she resurfaced in Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden as Jessica, the eldest niece of one-time angry neighbour Govert Harmsen. Katja's star immediately rose to fame.

With two other characters from the RTL soap she formed the spin off girl group Linda, Roos & Jessica. Their debut single "Ademnood" (English version: "Turn Your Love Around'") topped the Dutch charts late 1995.

The only flaw in this successful year was the release of De Zeemeerman (The Merman); it failed to draw people to the cinemas and was voted Worst Dutch Movie Ever.

Katja continued to release singles with both LRJ and on her own. In 1999 her last GTST-scenes were shown while LRJ called it a day either; their farewell single was aptly titled "1999 X".

The 2000s

In 2000 Katja played Frida in the Salou-based movie Costa! and found herself reunited with Georgina Verbaan, who played her sister Hedwig in Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden. Costa! premiered in 2001 and was successful enough to be converted into a television series. Both Katja and Georgina left after two seasons.

Katja went on to host programs for BNN alongside Bridget Maasland, till the latter was signed up by Talpa in 2005. As a farewell present they made Katja vs. Bridget, a Battle of the Babes-type series. One of the challenges saw Katja recording a Christmas-single with innovative rap-trio De Jeugd Van Tegenwoordig; the one exception on her decision not to pursue a singing career ("Lack of discipline" she told nl.20-magazine).

The next two years the formula was repeated for Katja vs. de Rest, replacing Bridget with other Dutch celebrities. Katja won both seasons, even though she failed to outsmart her own sister.

On August 8, 2006 Katja married actor Thijs Römer (grandson of actor Piet Romer) in Vallery, France. The couple, who first met on the set of television series Medea, went on to play the starring roles in Kapitein Rob en het Geheim van Professor Lupardi, a comic book adaptation that premiered on November 26, 2007.

Their latest joint movie, Het Wapen van Geldrop, has become a commercial failure upon release; critics blame Katja's joy-free character and Thijs Romer's directing.

New beginnings

2007 saw Katja launch a Fair Food-line whilst doing a lot of presenting work. Her BNN-years came to an end in 2008 after presenting a talk-show with Sofie Hilbrand. Katja now works for NET5, a commercial broadcaster aimed at the 'young dynamic woman' demographic. She stars in an adaptation of the newspaper comic Singles and reprises her Return To Sender documentary series.

Filmography

Television series as an actor

• Good Times, Bad Times (1995–1999)
• All Stars (1999-2001)
• Costa! (2001–2002)
• Medea (2005)

Television series as herself

• Katja vs. Bridget (2005)
• Katja vs. de rest (2006)

Films

• Poppycock (1995) (short film)
• De Zeemeerman (1996)
• No trains no planes (1999)
• Zeus (2001) (TV film)
• Costa! (2001)
• Oysters at Nam Kee's (2002)
• The Rules of Attraction (2002)
• Interview (2003)
• Cool! (2004)
• Sextet: De nationale bedverhalen (2006)
• Interview (2007)

External links

• Katja Schuurman at the Internet Movie Database
• Katja Schuurman at Allmovie
• Katja Schuurman at BNN