Kjetil Hasselberg

Kjetil Hasselberg spent his first working years in classrooms, not on stages. He trained in languages, taught German at the University of Oslo, and later worked as a secondary school teacher at Norges Toppidrettsgymnas in Bærum. It was at the university that he met Kjartan Eide, then a student of German, and the two teachers gradually turned their chemistry into a comedy partnership.

Their first paid job as comedians was a series of hidden camera stunts for Senkveld med HC og Tommy on TV 2. The channel then gave them a programme of their own, Kjetil og Kjartan show, which remains the work he is best known for. They later moved to live performance too, opening a stage production called The all right show at Christiania Theater in 2007.

What sets Hasselberg apart from many colleagues is a public stance on what comedy should not do. He criticised humour that, in his view, helped to legitimise a bullying culture among pupils, and afterwards he and Eide toured Norwegian schools for two years with an anti-bullying campaign.