In the Netherlands he appeared in the detective series
Bureau Kruislaan and its spin-off
Unit 13. He is known in
Canada where he was the television spokesman for
ING Direct for many years. The marketing campaign was developed by GWP Brand Engineering. They picked an actor with a foreign accent so that customers would not be surprised to learn the bank was also foreign. De Groot also speaks French, and is unusual among Canadian spokespeople for also appearing in the company's
French Canadian language spots. ==Personal life==