Thomas Seltzer.

Author of the bestseller Amerikansk Karmageddon. Bass player, documentarist, brand consultant. Currently writing Shit™.

Thomas Seltzer portrait

Book

Amerikansk Karmageddon book cover

Amerikansk Karmageddon — Tanker om mitt fordømte fedreland

Oktober Forlag · 2024

Personal account of America written from a Norwegian-American perspective.

Number one bestseller in Norway.

Currently

Writing Shit™. Hosting Trygdekontoret. Based in Trondheim.

Work

UXA — Thomas Seltzers Amerika

NRK, three seasons

Three-season documentary series in which Seltzer returned to his childhood home in the American Rust Belt and traveled across the country to look at what had happened to it. Over one million viewers per episode in Norway. One of the most-watched documentary productions in Scandinavian television history.

Turbonegro

Bass player and sailor

Norwegian rock band, active since 1989. Featured in Jackass and Wildboyz. The album Apocalypse Dudes (1998) is listed in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Turbojugend

Founder, 1997–present

Arguably the biggest underground rock'n'roll army on the planet. Worldwide fan organization for Turbonegro. Approximately 30,000 members across 1,600 chapters on every continent except Antarctica.

Trygdekontoret — "The Welfare Office"

NRK, weekly podcast

Weekly podcast for Norway's national broadcaster. Consistently among the ten most-listened-to podcasts in Norway. Past guests include Mayhem bassist Necrobutcher, Naomi Klein, Tim Heidecker, and former Norwegian Prime Minister and former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

NRK Documentaries

Various

Additional documentary work for Norway's national broadcaster, including Seltzer: Den norske fattigdommen (2024), on the working poor in present-day Norway.

LO — Landsorganisasjonen i Norge

Consultant

Strategic communications work for Norway's central trade union confederation.

Acting

Detective Hole

Netflix, 2026

Played prison warden Groth in the international Netflix series.

Speaking

Seltzer regularly delivers public lectures on the political situation in the United States, drawing on the work of Amerikansk Karmageddon and UXA — Thomas Seltzers Amerika, and on what artificial intelligence is doing to public meaning. He also hosts and moderates seminars and conferences.

Recognition

Åpenhetsprisen

Mental Helse, 2019

(The Openness Award) Awarded by Norway's largest mental health organization.

NITOs Ærespris

NITO, 2024

(NITO's Honorary Award) Awarded by Norway's largest engineering trade union for sustained engagement with the labor movement and the Norwegian tripartite model. The prize money was donated in full to LabourStart, the international labor movement's news and campaign platform.

Endorsements

Fender and Ampeg.

Thomas Seltzer portrait

Forthcoming

Shit™

Book on contemporary branding. Companion site: brandfuckinganything.com.

Praise

For UXA — Thomas Seltzers Amerika

This harrowing and masterly executed tale of Thomas Seltzer revisiting his origin is both deeply personal and unravelling as it peels off the skin of the American underbelly.

Johan Renck, director of Chernobyl and Breaking Bad

Thomas Seltzer is the travelling companion of your dreams. He takes us to the (just about still) beating heart of America — a homecoming for him and a revelation for us.

Stephen Fry

A searingly intelligent multi-hyphen legend. Insightful, maddening and endlessly enchanting.

Johnny Knoxville

Provenance

Family roots in Løten, Norway; Midland, Texas; and Kansas City, Kansas. Raised between Superior, Wisconsin and Follo, Norway.

Off the Page

Lifelong and well-traveled surfer. Avid Nordic skier and long-distance Nordic ice skater. (As he will proudly yet pathetically declare after a few units: "Fuck yeah I used to skate.")

Earlier

Bengal Consulting, Oslo

Account Planner, 1998–2002

Brand consultant for TINE Norske Meierier, Telenor, Levi-Strauss Europe, and Vimpelcom (Moscow).

Contact