Welcome to my webpage!

    My name is Helga Braga Jónsdóttir and I am an actress and a stand-up comedian.  I´m born in Akranes Iceland 5.nov. 1964; which makes me a scorpio, rising cancer with moon in sagittarius and mars in leo.  I started acting on stage when I was a child.  My first main role was "Pipi Longstocking" when i was 15 years old.  That is a real "Girl Power" character and gave me a lot as a teenager.  After I graduated from High school/college (it´s a different system in Iceland) I moved to France and was an Au-pair in Paris for several months.  I´ve always been interested in languages and history and Paris was my dream.

    After Paris I came home to Iceland to persue another dream; to become an actress!  I took singing and dance lessons and worked in the theater where my father was actor for 30 years.  My father´s name is Jón Hjartarson;  a writer and retired actor today.  I grew up with my single mother, Svala Bragadóttir.  I sometimes visited my father in Reykjavík and he took me to rehearsals in the theater. I loved it, i was totally fascinated with theater.

    My dream came true; I attended the Theaterschool of Iceland and became an actress; my debut was in the National Theater of Iceland "89 and then I moved to the City Theater of Reykjavík. The first role there was in the french farse; "A Flea in her ear" by Georges Feydeau.  I played "Eugenie" a lazy maid in "Hotel Pussy Cat" and my father played my boss!  My stepmother (Ragnheidur Tryggvadóttir; actress and manager of The Writers´Union of Iceland) was in the play too;  kind of a family union!  I had a steady contract as an actress in the City Theater for few years; Then everything changed!

    I´ve always been able to make people laugh.  It just comes naturally to me, it´s part of my character.  But I´m a mixture of a clown and a very serious and a dramatic person.   I always thought I would be a dramatic actress, which I was, the first years of my carriere.  But every now and then I was asked to do some comic roles in Theater, television and movies.  But I never took it seriously, because "I was a dramatic actres" (which can actually be very funny too). 

    Then I got the opportunity to be part of television comedy group called "Fóstbræður"  It was kind of "a all or nothing" opportunity, meaning we were going to change the Icelandic television comedy scene!  And that meant total devotion.  I  resigned my contract in the City Theater and focused on writing and acting for Televison.  The "Fóstbræður" show was a total hit and ran for 5 seasons.

    After "Fóstbræður" I became more of a Solo Artist.  I had my own Talk show for a while, called; "Helga Braga" (a la Oprah-show), where I talked about topics like; Codepency, Happiness, God, Relationships, Sex-abuse, Addiction, Stress, the image of the modern day men and women, Mysticism, .. a.o.  These are all topics which I think are very importand to talk about og share our reality and experience.  I was asked to do 8 episodes, but the show got so good ratings that I was asked to do more shows.  I did 12 episodes, but after that comedy was calling me again.  This was the second time where I walked away from a "Top rated" television show!   I was just not ready at that time to focus only on being a serious Talk-Show host!  But after that I have kind of mixed the two together; comedy and self-help! 

I do stand-up and lectures and cources in self-help and humour is my doorway into that!

I´m also a bellydancer!  I started dancing and taking bellydance cources 10 years ago and my first big bellydance-gig was in a beautycontest!  My friend Claudia Shiffer was one of the judges and she said that my belly dance was perfect!!! That was a huge encouragement for me and I have not stop dancing since!  I sometime teach bellydance and usually involve dancing in my gigs.