Film & TV / Theatre & dance
Thorsten Kaye
born 1966 · actor
Daytime Emmy-winning soap star (The Bold and the Beautiful's Ridge Forrester) who played classical repertory with Wayne State's Hilberry company and blogs for the Red Wings.
- Born
Frankfurt, West Germany
age 60- Birth name
- Thorsten Ernst Kieselbach
- Detroit years
- early 1990s
- Field
- Film & TV, Theatre & dance
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Born Thorsten Kieselbach in Frankfurt in 1966, Thorsten Kaye grew up between Germany and Britain and trained for the classical stage. Before television he played a long list of Shakespeare and Molière roles, among them parts in The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Hamlet, Twelfth Night and Tartuffe, both in London and with the Hilberry Repertory Company, Wayne State University's graduate theater company in Midtown Detroit. He then moved to Los Angeles and on to daytime drama, where he became one of the genre's leading men: Patrick Thornhart on One Life to Live, Ian Thornhart on Port Charles, the casino owner Zach Slater on All My Children and, from 2013, Ridge Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful, which brought him Daytime Emmys in 2023 and 2024. Detroit left him a lasting loyalty: a devoted Red Wings fan, he blogged about the team for NHL.com during the 2008 and 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs.
Highlights
- Daytime Emmy Awards (2023, 2024) as Ridge Forrester in The Bold and the Beautiful
- Zach Slater on All My Children
- Classical roles with the Hilberry Repertory Company at Wayne State
- Red Wings blogger for NHL.com during the 2008 and 2009 playoffs
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Performed here · early 1990s
Hilberry Theatre
Closed · 1964–2022
Wayne State's graduate repertory theater in a 1917 church; Kaye played classical roles with the company. It closed in 2022 for conversion into a jazz center; the Hilberry Gateway opened next door in 2023.
Studied here · early 1990s
Wayne State University
Kaye studied at Wayne State (per Wikidata) as part of its graduate theater program.