Kurt G Gustafsson was born in 1948 in Stockholm, Sweden, as the only child of Kaj and Hellevi Gustafsson, then recent immigrants from Finland, and grew up bilingual. He studied journalism at Journalisthögskolan i Stockholm (Stockholm College of Journalism) and worked successfully as a newspaper reporter for eight years, before turning to corporate communications. While working at the corporate communications department of Sandvik in Sandviken, Sweden, in the late 1970s and early 80s he was an enthusiastic member of the local amateur theater association for several years, playing among other parts the title role in Ben Johnson's "Volpone". His next job as communications manager for Nokia Sweden didn't allow time off for rehearsals or shows, so he gave up acting for 30 years, and devoted himself to his professional career, which went on to consulting at Carta Corporate Advisors, later Booz & Co. In 2000 Kurt went free lance and eventually realized that he again had time for acting, at least if he didn't commit himself to rehearsal schedules. So he turned to film. He worked on and off as an extra for a year to get his bearings in the business and then started to get acting parts as a "day player" in feature movies and lead parts in TV commercials.