Carl Theodor Dreyer was born the illegitimate son of a Danish farmer father and a Swedish mother; when he was a young boy his mother died and he was adopted by a Danish family named Dreyer. He embarked upon several careers before becoming a journalist in 1909. In this position, he wrote a series of articles profiling Danish celebrities which put Dreyer in touch with the world of film and theater. In the tradition of other Scandinavian directors, he began his film career by writing scripts; he joined the Danish state studio, Nordisk Films, in 1913 and became a full time screenwriter two years