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Ævar Þór Benediktsson

Bio

Ævar Þór Benediktsson (Aevar Thor) is an actor, author and media personality, born on the 9th of December 1984. He studied acting at the Icelandic University of the Arts and graduated 2020. Aevar Thor is best know in Iceland for his work as Aevar the scientist (in TV, radio and bookform) and for his bestselling "Your very own"-series of books, where the reader takes an active role in shaping the storyline.

Aevar has won several awards for his work, including the Icelandic Children's Book Awards, The Bookseller's Awards, four Edda-awards for his TV-show and a special award, by the Ministry of culture and education, in recognition of his contribution to work on the Icelandic language.

He was nominated for the Icelandic Literary Prize for Children and YA Books 2016 (The Robot Attack)  and was finalist and first International Selection of the DeBary Outstanding Children’s Book Awards 2016 (Dinosaurs in Reykjavik).

In 2015, 2016 and 2017 Ævar launched annual nation-wide reading challenges for every child in Iceland between the ages of 5-13. At the end of each challenge five participants are randomly selected and as a reward get to be characters in the book series "The Young Adventures of Ivor the Scientist". Over 177 thousand books were read in the three challenges. In October of 2017 he was nominated for the ALMA awards, as a "Promoter of reading".

​In 2017 Ævar was chosen as one of the Aarhus39 - a collection of the 39 best emerging writers for young people from across Europe.

In 2021 he was appointed UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in Iceland. 


Website of Ævar Þór.