Carice van Houten played her first leading role in Martin Koolhoven's TV film Suzy Q. Van Houten won a Golden Calf for her part as Suzy. She also won the Pisuisse Award and the Top Naeff Award for her stage acting and another Golden Calf for her part as the kitten that becomes a girl in Undercover Kitty (2001). The first time she could be seen in cinemas in the USA was when Martin Koolhoven's AmnesiA (2001) got a small theatrical release.
Van Houten won a Golden Calf for her performance as Rachel Stein in the 2006 film Black Book at the Netherlands Film Festival. Black Book's director Paul Verhoeven says about her in a television interview: "Never in my life I have worked with an actress this talented." and when he is asked to compare her with Sharon Stone he says: "Carice can really act". The international press is also enthusiastic about her role in Black Book. Dick Schümer writes in his review of the film in the Frankfurter Allgemeine that Carice van Houten is "not only more beautiful, but also a better actress than Scarlett Johansson".
In December 2006, Van Houten withdrew from a theatre production of Alex van Warmerdam due to personal reasons. According to a theatre spokesman it was because of a work overload.
Carice's first English spoken movie was Dorothy from French director Agnès Merlet.
Her performance in Black Book led to roles opposite Tom Cruise in Valkyrie and Jude Law and Forest Whitaker in Repo Men. She has acted in three movies directed by Dutch director Martin Koolhoven.
In 2008, she starred in the non-commercial short movie Zingen in het Donker, a drama on domestic violence. In January 2008, Van Houten was named Woman of the Year by New York Magazine. She appeared in the magazine Vanity Fair in the issue for March 2008, photographed by Wayne Maser.
Van Houten at the premiere of Dorothy
On 4 October 2008 filming began on From Time To Time, directed by Julian Fellowes. It is based on the children’s literature classic The Chimneys of Green Knowe by Lucy M. Boston. Van Houten is attached to star as Maria Oldknow.
In April 2009 it was announced that Van Houten would star in Black Death by UK director Christopher Smith and in the highly anticipated Dutch film Love Life (Komt een vrouw bij de dokter), based on the celebrated novel of the same name by Ray Kluun. She also starred in the Science-Fiction thriller Repo Men.
