Van Kooten was born on 26 January 1974 in
Purmerend, Netherlands, to
Kees van Kooten and Barbara Kits. Her brother is the actor and singer Kasper van Kooten. She grew up in
Zuidoostbeemster. In 1987, together with her mother she accepted on behalf of her father the
CPNB's audience award. CPNB proclaimed him to be the most popular author in the category novels and stories. She studied screenwriting at the Film Academy in Holland, but dropped out in the first year. After a chance meeting with director Robert Jan Westdijk, van Kooten made her acting debut in the film
Zusje (
Little Sister). These were followed by films such as
Jesus is een Palestijn (
Jesus is a Palestinian) (with her then boyfriend
Hans Teeuwen),
Mariken and
Phileine Zegt Sorry (for which she won a
Golden Calf for Best Actress). She is also a screenwriter and was asked by
Theo van Gogh to do the script for the film
Blind Date. She now specialises in working with characters and real-life dialogue. Besides being an actress and writer, van Kooten worked as an editor and presenter for the cinema programme Stardust for the Dutch television network
VPRO. She was the star of a
dramedy show called
Evelien, that shown on
Net5. She has written the script of the successful Dutch movie
Alles is Liefde (
Everything is Love). The movie has been seen over a million times, which resulted in a
Diamond Film award. Later, it received a Dutch
Golden Calves award for best Dutch movie. She is married to actor
Jacob Derwig, with whom she has two children, Roman and Kee Molly (born 17 December 2007). They met on the set of the TV-series
De acteurs (
The actors), where various actors played different roles written by Van Kooten. ==Filmography==