Background
Van Kooten grew up in Zuidoostbeemster. She is the daughter of Kees van Kooten and Barbara Kits.
Van Kooten grew up in Zuidoostbeemster. She is the daughter of Kees van Kooten and Barbara Kits.
She studied screenwriting at the Film Academy in Holland, but dropped out in the first year.
In international cinema she is best known for the 2003 Dutch/United States co-production Phileine Says Sorry, filmed partly in New York, in which she plays the lead. Her brother is the actor and singer Kasper van Kooten. After a chance meeting with director Robert January Westdijk, van Kooten made her acting debut in the film Zusje (Little Sister).
These were followed by films such as Jesus is een Palestijn (Jesus is a Palestinian) (with her then boyfriend Hans Teeuwen), Mariken and Phileine Zegt Sorry.
She is also a screenwriter and was asked by Theo van Gogh to do the script for the film Blind Date. She now specialises in working with characters and real-life dialogue.
Besides being an actress and writer, van Kooten worked as an editor and presenter for the cinema programme Stardust for the Dutch television network VPRO. She now is the star of a new dramedy show called Evelien, shown on Net 5. She has written the script of the successful Dutch movie Alles is Liefde (Everything is Love).
The movie has been seen over a million times, which resulted in a Diamanten film award.
They met on the set of the television-series De acteurs (The actors), where various actors played different roles written by Van Kooten.