Benny Andersson
Andersson's screen credits are a rounding error next to his songbook, and that is the right way round. He is a Swedish musician, composer and producer, known first as a member of ABBA and then as a writer for the stage: Chess, Kristina fran Duvemala, and Mamma Mia!, which rebuilt the ABBA songs as a stage musical.
His earliest film credit is ABBA: The Movie in 1977, where he appears as himself. When Mamma Mia! reached the screen in 2008 he took an executive producer credit and put himself in frame for a few seconds as an uncredited piano player on a boat, and he did the same producing job on the 2018 sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.
Since 2001 he has worked with his own band, Benny Anderssons orkester, which is where most of his time now goes. The pattern across all of it is that he stays behind the piano rather than in front of the camera, and the songs do the travelling for him.
Movies (2)
TV (3)
Music (1)
Where to start with Benny Andersson
Begin with ABBA: The Movie. It is a period document rather than a good film, a tour movie hung on a thin framing gag about a journalist chasing an interview, but it is the only place here where you watch Andersson actually working: at the keyboard, in front of a crowd, in 1977.
Mamma Mia! is the opposite proposition, his songs handed to actors, some of whom can sing, arranged for maximum sunshine. Watch it for the arrangements rather than the plot and notice how little the melodies need the original voices. Pair it with Mamma Mia! The Movie Soundtrack: Featuring the Songs of ABBA if you want those versions without the Greek scenery.
This Is Pop gives you the outside view, a documentary series on how pop actually gets built, and the only one of the four that treats him as a subject rather than a source.