Katja Römer-Schuurman (born February 19, 1975, in Bunnik) is a Dutch actress. She began acting during her school years and appeared in the 1992 series Uit de school geklapt by the Dutch broadcaster NCRV. After graduating, she played several minor roles in television series.
Her breakthrough came with the role of Jessica Harmsen (1995–1999) in the series Goede tijden, slechte tijden, the Dutch counterpart to the German soap opera Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten. At the peak of the show's popularity, she and her co-stars Guusje Nederhorst and Babette van Veen released the single Ademnood under the band name Linda, Roos & Jessica, which topped the Dutch charts for seven weeks in late 1995. After Schuurman left the series in spring 1999 along with Cas Jansen, the ratings dropped by more than 20 percent. In December 1999, she made headlines after causing a traffic accident while intoxicated.
After Goede tijden, slechte tijden, Schuurman appeared in various films, including a brief role in the 2002 adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis's The Rules of Attraction. In 2003, she had a leading role in the film The Interview by director Theo van Gogh, who was murdered in 2004; in this film, she played herself as a soap opera actress, and her apartment was used as a set. One year after van Gogh's murder, she hosted the BNN documentary Prettig weekend, ondanks alles, which analyzed police investigations into the Hofstad Group. Katja Schuurman is the older sister of singer and actress Birgit Schuurman.
Netherlands
