Stefán Karl Stefánsson

**Stefán Karl Stefánsson** (; ; 10 July 1975 – 21 August 2018) was an Icelandic actor and singer. He was best known for playing antagonist Robbie Rotten on the children's television series _LazyTown_.

## Career

Stefán Karl's career started in 1994. At the age of 19, he worked as a puppeteer for television. During his years as a puppeteer, he had also been studying at the Drama Academy of Iceland. However, he was not satisfied with how Iceland views their drama standards. He remembered that his principal at his high school said that "acting is not about making faces and changing your face". He did not agree with his high school principal.

Later, Stefán Karl had been invited by Magnús Scheving, an Icelandic gymnast, to portray one of the characters in the second _LazyTown_ play. Scheving created the plays because he was concerned that Iceland's younger generation is not doing enough exercise. Stefán Karl explained that "[Scheving] wanted the kids to get healthier, so he created this musical called _LazyTown_. He played Sportacus, the fitness fanatic, and I was Robbie Rotten, the guy who liked to stay indoors and sleep". After initial success with the musical, Nickelodeon eventually made a deal with the creators of _LazyTown_ to air the first 40 episodes of _LazyTown_ along with a special studio built in Iceland. During the first few years of _LazyTown_ in the early 2000s, Stefán Karl initially knew no English, but soon became fluent.

## Personal life

Stefán Karl lived in Los Angeles with his wife Steinunn Ólína Þorsteinsdóttir, three daughters, and one son. In June 2018, he was awarded the Order of the Falcon. He had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and Tourette syndrome.

## Illness and death

Stefán Karl announced in October 2016 that he had been diagnosed with bile duct cancer. On the same month, GoFundMe campaign was subsequently created by _LazyTown_ head writer Mark Valenti to pay his living costs when he became too ill to work. The campaign was popularized by various YouTube users uploading parodies of Stefán Karl's work. This eventually made the songs "We Are Number One" and "The Mine Song" from _LazyTown_ become Internet memes. In August 2017, Stefán Karl stated he was in remission. He clarified on his GoFundMe campaign that while his metastases had been removed after successful liver surgery in June 2017, he still had the disease and had refused further adjuvant therapy.

In March 2018, Stefán Karl announced the cancer had returned and was deemed inoperable and said that he was undergoing chemotherapy to increase the length of his life. In April 2018, he announced that he personally chose to stop his chemotherapy, and then began to shut down all his social media accounts.

He died on 21 August 2018 at the age of 43. His wife stated that Stefansson didn't want to a funeral when he died. Instead, she had said that his body will be secretly scattered into a distant ocean.

## Legacy

It was announced by his manager, Cheryl Edison, that the Stefán Karl Academy & Center for the Performing Arts will be opened in Switzerland in the year 2019 as a memorial to his career.

## Filmography

Stefán Karl has been credited in various works including plays, television series, films, and games.

### Theater

|Year|Title|Role|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1997–99|_The Jungle Book_ by Rudyard Kipling|||
|1998–99|_Palace of Crows_ by Einar Örn Gunnarsson|||
|1998–99|_Ivanov_ by Anton Chekhov|||
|1999–2000|_1000 Island Dressing_ by Hallgrímur Helgason|||
|1999–2000|_Little Shop of Horrors_|Orin Scrivello, D.D.S.||
|1999–2000|_A Midsummer Night's Dream_|||
|1999–2000|_Glanni Glæpur í Latabæ_ by Magnús Scheving and Sigurdur Sigurjónsson|Glanni Glæpur (Robbie Rotten)|Primary antagonist|
|2000–01|_Stones in His Pockets_ by Marie Jones|||
|2000–01|_Singin' in the Rain_ by Comden, Green, Freed and Brown|Cosmo Brown||
|2000–02|_The Cherry Orchard_ by Anton Chekhov|||
|2001–02|_Cyrano de Bergerac_ by Edmond Rostand|||
|2002–03|_Noises Off_ by Michael Frayn|||
|2002–03|_Life x 3_ by Yasmina Reza|||
|2008–15|_Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical_|The Grinch|Baltimore and Boston (2008) Los Angeles (2009) North American tour (2010–14) Worcester, Massachusetts and Appleton, Wisconsin (2015)|

### Films

According to IMDb:
|Year|Title|Role|class="unsortable"|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1994|_Áramótaskaup_|New Reporter, many others|Debut film TV film||
|1995|_Privacy_|Student|First feature film||
|1999|_Skaupið: 1999_|Robbie Williams, many others|TV film||
|2001|_Regina_|Manni – Police Officer|||
|2001|_Áramótaskaup_||TV film||
|2002|_Stella for Office_|Ingimundur|||
|2002|_Litla lirfan ljóta_|The Worm|||
|2002|_Áramótaskaup_|Many roles|TV film||
|2006|_Night at the Museum_||Miscellaneous crew||
|2007|_Anna and the Moods_||Voiceover||
|2009|_Jóhannes_|Diddi|||
|2011|_Thor_||Miscellaneous crew||
|2011|_Polite People_|Lárus Skjaldarson|Lead actor||
|2014|_Harry Og Heimir_|Símon|||

### Television

|Year|Title|Role|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1998|_Baking Trouble_||Channel 1 program|
|1999|_God Exists... And Love_||Channel 1 Drama Academy of Iceland|
|2000|_Angel No. 5503288_||Channel 1 program|
|2000|_Car Mechanic Sketches for Eurovision_||Channel 1 program|
|2000|_Cars Can Fly_||Channel 1 program|
|2004–2007; 2013–2014|_LazyTown_|Robbie Rotten|Main villain|
|2015|_Titch and Ted Do Maths_|||

### Video games

|Year|Title|Role|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|2017|_For Honor_|Viking Soldier||

## Infobox (person)

- **name**: Stefán Karl Stefánsson
- **birth place**: Hafnarfjörður, Iceland
- **death place**: Iceland
- **death cause**: Cancer
- **education**: Iceland Academy of the Arts
- **occupation**: Actor, singer
- **years active**: 19942018
- **children**: 4