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- Actor
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Actor and musician Bruce Willis is well known for playing wisecracking or hard-edged characters, often in spectacular action films. Collectively, he has appeared in films that have grossed in excess of $2.5 billion USD.
Walter Bruce Willis was born on March 19, 1955, in Idar-Oberstein, West Germany, to a German mother, Marlene Kassel, and an American father, David Andrew Willis (from Carneys Point, New Jersey), who were then living on a United States military base. His family moved to the U.S. shortly after he was born, and he was raised in Penns Grove, New Jersey, where his mother worked at a bank and his father was a welder and factory worker. Willis picked up an interest for the dramatic arts in high school, and was allegedly "discovered" whilst working in a café in New York City and then appeared in a couple of off-Broadway productions. While bartending one night, he was seen by a casting director who liked his personality and needed a bartender for a small movie role.
After countless auditions, Willis contributed minor film appearances, usually uncredited, before landing the role of private eye "David Addison" alongside sultry Cybill Shepherd in the hit romantic comedy television series Moonlighting (1985). His sarcastic and wisecracking P.I. is seen by some as a dry run for the role of hard-boiled NYC detective "John McClane" in the monster hit Die Hard (1988), in which Willis' character single-handedly battled a gang of ruthless international thieves in a Los Angeles skyscraper. He reprised the role of McClane in the sequel, Die Hard 2 (1990), set at a snowbound Washington's Dulles International Airport as a group of renegade Special Forces soldiers seek to repatriate a corrupt South American general. Excellent box office returns demanded a further sequel Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), this time co-starring Samuel L. Jackson as a cynical Harlem shop owner unwittingly thrust into assisting McClane during a terrorist bombing campaign on a sweltering day in New York.
Willis found time out from all the action mayhem to provide the voice of "Mikey" the baby in the very popular family comedies Look Who's Talking (1989), and its sequel Look Who's Talking Too (1990) also starring John Travolta and Kirstie Alley. Over the next decade, Willis starred in some very successful films, some very offbeat films and some unfortunate box office flops. The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) and Hudson Hawk (1991) were both large scale financial disasters that were savaged by the critics, and both are arguably best left off the CVs of all the actors involved, however Willis was still popular with movie audiences and selling plenty of theatre tickets with the hyper-violent The Last Boy Scout (1991), the darkly humored Death Becomes Her (1992) and the mediocre police thriller Striking Distance (1993).
During the 1990s, Willis also appeared in several independent and low budget productions that won him new fans and praise from the critics for his intriguing performances working with some very diverse film directors. He appeared in the oddly appealing North (1994), as a cagey prizefighter in the Quentin Tarantino directed mega-hit Pulp Fiction (1994), the Terry Gilliam directed apocalyptic thriller 12 Monkeys (1995), the Luc Besson directed sci-fi opus The Fifth Element (1997) and the M. Night Shyamalan directed spine-tingling epic The Sixth Sense (1999).
Willis next starred in the gangster comedy The Whole Nine Yards (2000), worked again with "hot" director M. Night Shyamalan in the less than gripping Unbreakable (2000), and in two military dramas, Hart's War (2002) and Tears of the Sun (2003) that both failed to really fire with movie audiences or critics alike. However, Willis bounced back into the spotlight in the critically applauded Frank Miller graphic novel turned movie Sin City (2005), the voice of "RJ" the scheming raccoon in the animated hit Over the Hedge (2006) and "Die Hard" fans rejoiced to see "John McClane" return to the big screen in the high tech Live Free or Die Hard (2007) aka "Die Hard 4.0".
Willis was married to actress Demi Moore for approximately thirteen years and they share custody to their three daughters.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Martin Fitzgerald Lawrence is an African-American comedian, producer, writer, director and actor. He is known for his roles in the Bad Boys trilogy, Martin, Def Comedy Jam, Big Momma's House, Open Season, House Party, Boomerang, Wild Hogs, What's Happening Now!!, Nothing to Lose, Life and Blue Streak. He has three daughters.- Actor
- Producer
- Executive
Michael Fassbender is an Irish actor who was born in Heidelberg, Germany, to a German father, Josef, and an Irish mother, Adele (originally from Larne, County Antrim, in Northern Ireland). Michael was raised in the town of Killarney, Co. Kerry, in south-west Ireland, where his family moved to when he was two years old. His parents ran a restaurant (his father is a chef).
Fassbender is based in London, England, and became known in the U.S. after his role in the Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (2009). In 2011, Fassbender debuted as the Marvel antihero Magneto in the prequel X-Men: First Class (2011); he would go on to share the role with Ian McKellen in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014). Also in 2011, Fassbender's performance as a sex addict in Shame (2011) received critical acclaim. He won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for Golden Globe and BAFTA Awards. In 2013, his role as slave owner Edwin Epps in slavery epic 12 Years a Slave (2013) was similarly praised, earning him his first Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actor. 12 Years a Slave marked Fassbender's third collaboration with Steve McQueen, who also directed Hunger and Shame. In 2013, Fassbender appeared in another Ridley Scott film, The Counselor (2013). In 2015, he portrayed Steve Jobs (2015) in the Danny Boyle-directed biopic of the same name, and played Macbeth (2015) in Justin Kurzel's adaptation of William Shakespeare's play. For the former, he has received Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe and SAG nominations for Best Actor. As well as acting, Fassbender produced the 2015 western Slow West (2015), which he also starred in.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Zazie Beetz (born c. 1991) is a German-American actress known for the role of Vanessa on Atlanta (2016), as well as for starring in Deadpool 2 (2018), Joker (2019), and Nine Days (2020).
Born in Berlin to a German father and an African-American mother, Beetz was raised in New York speaking both German and English at home. Performing in community theaters and local stages since childhood, Zazie found her joy in grade school and grew up acting. She attended LaGuardia Arts High school, where she continued to engage her love for performing arts, but decided to not pursue a conservatory program afterward. Instead, she went to Skidmore College, where she received a bachelor's degree in French. Beetz currently resides in her hometown, New York.- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Franka Potente was born on 22 July 1974 in the German city of Münster, to Hildegard, a medical assistant, and Dieter Potente, a teacher, and raised in the nearby town of Dülmen. After her graduation in 1994, she went to the Otto-Falckenberg-Schule, a drama school in Munich, but soon broke off to study at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York. After a notable debut in Nach Fünf im Urwald (1995), the role of the heroine in Run Lola Run (1998), directed by her then longtime companion Tom Tykwer was her national breakthrough. After some other successful movies in Germany, she starred in several Hollywood productions, most prominently The Bourne Identity (2002) and The Bourne Supremacy (2004) and lived one year in Los Angeles. After her return to Berlin, she continues working with German and international directors.- Actress
- Producer
- Additional Crew
After playing a lead role in Oscar and Golden Globe nominated movie "Schtonk!" by Helmut Dietl 1992, Veronica Ferres became one of the most well-known German actresses. She has worked in over one hundred and fifty feature films; more than thirty of which were American / English productions. Two Emmy-Award-winning productions stand out among the numerous films, TV series and TV movies that Veronica has done.
Her breakthrough into film was imminent following her lead role in the successful comedy "The Superwoman (Das Superweib)", followed by the Academy Award nominated "Schtonk!", "Rossini" and "Saviours in the night". Recent films include "Short Term Memory Loss", and the remarkable comedy "Under German Beds (Unter Deutschen Betten)". In 2018 Veronica was featured in the film "Siberia", alongside Keanu Reeves, as well as "Berlin, I Love You" with Helen Mirren.
Among the highlights of her lengthy career in the international film-making world, include work with Catherine Zeta-Jones in "Catherine the Great", John Malkovich in "Ladies Room", "Klimt", "The Giacomo Variation" and "Les Misérables", Jeff Goldblum in "Adam Resurrected", Nicholas Cage in "Pay the Ghost", Robert De Niro, Danny DeVito and Harvey Keitel in "The Comedian", Michael Shannon & Gabriel Garcia Bernal in Werner Herzog's "Salt and Fire", and Sir Ben Kingsley in "Death of an Author".
Some of her recent works include Nicholas Jarecki's "Crisis", alongside Gary Oldman and Luke Evans, the mystery thriller "The darker the lake" directed by Lok Kwan Woo and the romantic comedy "Love, Weddings and Other Disasters" starring Diane Keaton and Jeremy Irons. Furthermore she appeared in "Best Sellers" with Michael Caine and in "Every breath you take" with Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan and Sam Claflin. In 2020 she starred in the thriller "Zero Contact" alongside Anthony Hopkins. Her short film Malou was on the Academy Award short-list for 2020. In 2021, she shot "Paradise Highway" with Juliette Binoche and Morgan Freeman, which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival.
In 2022 she starred in the action thriller "The Bricklayer" alongside Aaron Eckhart and Nina Dobrev. Furthermore, Veronica played a leading role in the popular German television series "Tatort" in the episode "Königinnen" directed by Rudi Gaul.
In the same year, Veronica Ferres played in the new film adaptation of Robert E. Howard's original Marvel comic "Red Sonja", directed by M.J. Bassett the mother of Red Sonja as well as the Goddess Ashera alongside Mathila Lutz, Wallis Day and Robert Sheehan. Recently she finished the english language streaming series "El Turco" in Budapest.
In 2023, Veronica Ferres shot the American feature film "Unholy Trinity" in Montana, directed by Richard Gray, where she played the female lead alongside Pierce Brosnan and Samuel L. Jackson. She also starred in the ZDFneo horror series "Hameln" directed by Rainier Matsutani, which is based on the legend of the "Pied Piper of Hamelin", as well as the fictional feature film "Andere Eltern", directed by Lutz Heineking, jr.
She is an alumna of University of Munich where she studied German literature, psychology and drama. Furthermore she teaches at the German University of Television and Film school in Munich.
A few of her personal awards include: The Adolph Grimme Prize, The German Television Prize, two Golden Camera Awards, The Bavarian Film Award, The Bavarian Television Prize, two Bambi Awards as well as an Emmy for "The Manns" (Best Mini Series).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Jeri Ryan was born Jeri Lynn Zimmerman on February 22, 1968 in Munich, West Germany, to Gerhard Florian Zimmerman, a Master Sergeant in the United States Army, and his wife Sharon, a social worker. She and her older brother Mark grew up on several military bases, including Kansas, Maryland, Hawaii, Georgia and Texas. Finally, at age 11, her father retired from the Army and her family settled down in Paducah, Kentucky. After graduating from Lone Oak High School in 1986, she attended Northwestern University Chicago as a National Merit Scholar. While studying there, she won a number of beauty contests (a.o.- sixth annual Miss Northwestern Alpha Delta Phi Pageant in 1989).
With a B.S. degree in Theatre, she came to Los Angeles, California and since then she has been on several television series and films - including popular series like Matlock (1986), Melrose Place (1992) and Star Trek: Voyager (1995) as well as Dark Skies (1996). Her television experience also includes roles in a variety of telefilms including Nightmare in Columbia County (1991), NBC's In the Line of Duty: Ambush in Waco (1993), Co-ed Call Girl (1996), The Sentinel (1996), Men Cry Bullets (1998), Dracula 2000 (2000), The Last Man (2000) and Down with Love (2003). Jeri Ryan resides in an area of Los Angeles, California with her husband chef Christophe Eme, her son Alex and daughter Gisele.- Actress
- Producer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Diane Kruger was born Diane Heidkrüger in Algermissen, near Hildesheim, Germany, to Maria-Theresa, a bank employee, and Hans-Heinrich Heidkrüger, a computer specialist. She studied ballet with the Royal Ballet in London before an injury ended her career. She returned to Germany and became a top fashion model. She later pursued acting and relocated to Paris at the suggestion of filmmaker Luc Besson (The Fifth Element (1997)). She married French actor Guillaume Canet (The Beach (2000)) in 2001.- Actress
- Producer
Necar Zadegan is a versatile actress known for a career on stage and screen. She made her Broadway debut when she originated the role of the Leper in Rajiv Joseph's Pulitzer Prize nominated and multi Tony award accoladed play " The Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo" opposite Robin Williams. She stars as Special Agent Hannah Khoury in the CBS global franchise series, "NCIS: New Orleans" and has joined the cast of the much anticipated and newest installation of the Star Trek franchise, "Picard".
Ms. Zadegan first garnered critical acclaim for her portrayal of First Lady turned president Dalia Hassan on Fox's hit series "24", and most recently for her hilarious leading role in the absurdist docu-spoof film for IFC on Netflix called "Documentary: Now" written by Seth Meyers and alongside an all-star cast. The show has been nominated for multiple Emmys and has begun streaming in the UK. For HBO in the drama "Here and Now" from Oscar winning screenwriter, creator Alan Ball, she takes the lead in the delicate portrayal of Layla Shokrani.
In the much beloved Bravo comedy streaming on Netflix, "Girlfriends Guide to Divorce", Ms. Zadegan plays the character written for her by show creator Marti Noxon, of fashionable, high powered attorney and fan favorite, Delia Banai. The show recently began streaming its fifth and final season. The year also saw Ms. Zadegan join the cast of the ABC hit "The Good Doctor". Other series regular roles include her portrayal of Dr. Gina Bandari on "Emily Owens MD" and in the lead opposite Greg Kinnear in the FOX comedy "Rake".
Some highlights from her many other credits include roles for Steven Spielberg company produced series "Extant", opposite Sean Bean in spy series "Legends" and a very memorable turn as the Queen of Iran in Showtime's critical success "Masters of Sex" opposite Michael Sheen, with whom she also starred opposite in the Columbia Tri Star film, psychological thriller "Unthinkable" alongside Samuel L. Jackson. She appeared with Adam Sandler in Judd Apatow's "You Don't Mess With the Zohan" and played the title role in "Elena Undone" which enjoyed success at independent festivals worldwide.
Ms. Zadegan has worked at some of the world's most prestigious theaters including The Mark Taper Forum, the Royal Dramatic Theater of Stockholm, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco and many more, and toured internationally in the Persian language production of "Satellite with Love".
Necar Zadegan was born in Heidelberg, Germany and raised in Northern California. She studied theater and dance on a performance scholarship at the University of California, Santa Barbara and graduated with honors and a BA degree in English Literature. She also studied at the Sorbonne University in Paris. She speaks Persian, French and German and has learned Spanish, Arabic and Hebrew while working in those languages. She works with USAID in supporting opportunities for education across the globe and is an ambassador for BuildOn.org and travels with them around the world building schools for children.- Harriet Herbig-Matten was born in 2003 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. She is an actress, known for Maxton Hall: The World Between Us (2024), Baltic Crimes (2014) and Teenosaurus Rex (2017).
- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
The daughter of a noted surgeon, Dana Wynter was born Dagmar Winter in Berlin, Germany, and grew up in England. When she was 16 her father went to Morocco, reportedly to operate on a woman who wouldn't allow anyone else to attend her; he visited friends in Southern Rhodesia, fell in love with it and brought his daughter and her stepmother to live with him there. Wynter later enrolled as a pre-med student at Rhodes University (the only girl in a class of 150 boys) and also dabbled in theatrics, playing the blind girl in a school production of "Through a Glass Darkly", in which she says she was "terrible."
After a year-plus of studies, she returned to England and shifted gears, dropping her medical studies and turning to an acting career. She was appearing in a play in Hammersmith when an American agent told her he wanted to represent her. She left for New York on November 5, 1953, "Guy Fawkes Day," a holiday commemorating a 1605 attempt to blow up the Parliament building. "There were all sorts of fireworks going off," she later told an interviewer, "and I couldn't help thinking it was a fitting send-off for my departure to the New World."
Wynter had more success in New York than in London, acting on TV (Robert Montgomery Presents (1950), Suspense (1949), Studio One (1948), among others) and the stage before "going Hollywood" a short time later. The willowy, dark-eyed actress appeared in over a dozen films, worked in "Golden Age" television (such as Playhouse 90 (1956)) and even co-starred in her own short-lived TV series, the globe-trotting The Man Who Never Was (1966). Married and divorced from well-known Hollywood lawyer Greg Bautzer, Wynter, once called Hollywood's "oasis of elegance", divided her time between homes in California and County Wicklow, Ireland until her death.- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Sandra Hüller was born in Suhl. She studied acting at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin. For her performance of Anneliese Michel in Hans-Christian Schmid's drama Requiem she won The Silver Bear for Best Actress. She is internationally known for her starring role in Maren Ade's Toni Erdmann, for which she won among others the European Film Award and the Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress.- Actress
- Director
- Producer
Elisabeth Rohm will next be seen in the Roger Ailes biopic FAIR AND BALANCED for Lionsgate and director Jay Roach, portraying Fox News host Martha MacCallum, as well as Ted Melfi's THE STARLING opposite Melissa McCarthy.
Elisabeth recently wrapped production on the Lifetime feature FAMILY PICTURES opposite Justina Machado and previously co-starred in David O. Russell's JOY opposite Jennifer Lawrence and Robert De Niro. This was her second collaboration with David following the huge success of AMERICAN HUSTLE in which she had a pivotal role opposite Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale and Amy Adams (the film won numerous accolades for its ensemble cast including the coveted SAG Award and both films were nominated for Oscars.)
Elisabeth also had a key role in TRIBES OF PALOS VERDES opposite Jennifer Garner for IFC Films and Relativity Media. Other notable film credits include TRAFFICKED with Ashley Judd and GOING UNDER opposite Bruce Willis and Jason Momoa.
Elisabeth also has a rich body of work in the television space notably starring as "Serena Southerlyn" on LAW & ORDER for five seasons and "Kate Lockley" on The WB series ANGEL. More recently, Elisabeth co-starred with Dylan McDermott and Maggie Q on STALKER for CBS and starred opposite Eric Dance on THE LAST SHIP for TNT and Michael Bay. She also had memorable arcs on Will Arnett's Netflix series FLAKED and The CW hit show JANE THE VIRGIN.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Jürgen Prochnow is the son of a telecommunications engineer. He has an older brother, Dieter Prochnow, who is also in the acting profession. Jürgen's parents encouraged him initially to study the banking trade. However, their son had other ideas and began working on the side as an extra and a gaffer at a theater in Düsseldorf. He eventually commenced acting studies at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen in 1963. His graduation three years later was followed by a first theatrical engagement in Osnabrück. Between 1971 and 1975, Prochnow was a member of the ensemble of the Schauspielhaus Bochum under the direction of Peter Zadek.
On screen from 1971, he made his debut on the big screen in (what was also Wolfgang Petersen's first film) the thriller One or the Other (1974). Prochnow commanded the lead as a struggling student who blackmails his sociology professor (Klaus Schwarzkopf) after discovering that the academic had attained his credentials by means of a plagiarised doctoral thesis. Dire consequences ensue. That same year, Petersen also directed Prochnow in an episode of the hit police series Tatort (1970). In the New German Cinema of the 1970s, the charismatic Prochnow was given ample opportunities to shine, as he did in the title role of the prison drama The Brutalization of Franz Blum (1974) and in Volker Schlöndorffs political drama The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975) as a deserter wanted by the police and whose flight sparks a series of fateful events. During this period, the actor's stock-in-trade screen personae were laconic, taciturn types, often loners, yet men of integrity and strong emotional centres.
Prochnow's breakthrough to international stardom came via Wolfgang Petersen's brilliant maritime war drama Das Boot (1981). Prochnow took the nominal lead and was top-billed as the cool-headed, sympathetic veteran U-boat commander Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock, a kind of father figure to his crew and affectionately known as 'the old man'. A contemporary New York Times reviewer commented "The captain of the U-boat is played by Jurgen Prochnow, a remarkable actor who has also worked with Mr. Petersen on four other films. Mr. Prochnow's sad, solemn face rarely changes, but his pale eyes are extraordinarily alive. As the captain, he becomes a source of spiritual strength for his crewmen, even though his own cynicism is readily apparent". While the story of Das Boot was fictionalized, it was in part based on the exploits of a real Lehmann-Willenbrock, who did, in fact, captain U-96 (as one of four commands). He was decorated with the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves (one of the highest honours bestowed) and survived the war to become captain of Germany's nuclear freighter Otto Hahn.
In the wake of Das Boot, Prochnow received many offers from Hollywood, his craggy features and military bearing getting him frequently typecast as callous villains in action films: he was Eddie Murphy's nemesis Maxwell Dent in Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), a brutal Norman knight in Robin Hood (1991), vicious gangster Charlie Dowd in Hurricane Smith (1992), the unhinged author of horror novels Sutter Cane in John Carpenter 's supernatural thriller In the Mouth of Madness (1994) and Judge Griffin, the chief villain of the piece who frames Sylvester Stallone for murder in Judge Dredd (1995). Prochnow also reunited with Wolfgang Petersen who directed him again in the box-office blockbuster Air Force One (1997) in the role of a rogue eastern European dictator bent on reigniting the Cold War. In season eight of the TV series 24 (2001), Prochnow featured as Jack Bauer's elusive antagonist Sergei Bazhaev, leader of a secret Russian crime syndicate.
On the side of the white hats, Prochnow has portrayed the ambitious banker André Vernet in The Da Vinci Code (2006) and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the poorly received biographical drama See Arnold Run (2005) (Prochnow had once even been under consideration to play Arnie's iconic Terminator role). He has also been active in German films and television, including a role as an unscrupulous businessman attempting to market a pharmaceutical product with known harmful side-effects in The Dark Side of the Moon (2015). On stage, he has essayed Etzel, king of the Huns in Siegfried's Erben at the 2018 Nibelungen Festival in Worms.
As a voice-over actor, Prochnow has been the German voice for Sylvester Stallone in several films (including Rocky (1976) and Rocky II (1979). He has also dubbed most of his own English-language roles into German. His awards include a Bambi in 1988 for his messianic role in The Seventh Sign (1988), a Golden Kamera as Best German Actor for Das Boot and a Jupiter Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013.
Prochnow adopted American citizenship in 2004, regularly commuting between Los Angeles and Munich. The actor's first wife was Isabel Goslar (daughter of Jürgen Goslar) who worked on Das Boot as a script supervisor and continuity manager. His second wife was the actress Birgit Stein who died in a motorcycle crash in Utah four years after her divorce from Prochnow in 2018. Since March 2015, Prochnow has been married to the Austrian actress Verena Wengler.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
At fourteen years old, Q'orianka Kilcher emerged into the front ranks of young actresses with her portrayal of Pocahontas opposite Colin Farrell and Christian Bale in Terrence Malick's 'The New World', an epic about the encounter between English and North American societies in the early 1600s. Her performance won her the National Board of Reviews best breakthrough performance of 2006 and the 2006 Alma Award for best Latin American actress in a feature film, as well as numerous nominations and rave reviews.
Kilcher was born in Schweigmatt, Baden-Württemberg, Germany to a Peruvian indigenous father of Quechua-Huachipaeri background and an Alaskan-born mother of Swiss-German origin. She was raised in Kapa'a, Hawaii. Having started her performing arts career at six years old, she is not only an award-winning actress with critical acclaim, but an amazing singer, lyricist, and expert dancer. Kilcher is also a committed human rights and environmental activist, as well as a fearless, powerful, young force who uses her voice as tool to bring the need for universal dignity, compassion, environmental justice, and basic Human Rights to the attention of the international community.
Traveling frequently to speak at youth events, colleges, and universities, Kilcher has been invited as a featured keynote speaker and workshop facilitator at many international conferences and events for organizations such as Amnesty International, the I.F.G. (International Forum on Globalization), and Amazon Watch I.F.I.P. (International Funders for Indigenous Peoples). She was a panelist on the "Indigenous Peoples: Human Rights, Dignity and Development with Identity in collaboration with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples" United Nations panel. She also lends her energy as spokeswoman, collaborator, and supporter to several international and national NGOs.
In her free time, Kilcher is an accomplished singer/song-writer, and recently launched her own youth driven human rights and environmental organization on Q Initiative, heading campaigns to connect young Hollywood with youth-activist leaders and projects from around the world.
Through her production company, IQ-Films, Kilcher is also producing several cause-driven documentaries and youth-programming projects.- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Wim Wenders is an Oscar-nominated German filmmaker who was born Ernst Wilhelm Wenders on August 14, 1945 in Düsseldorf, which then was located in the British Occupation Zone of what became the Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Republic of Germany, known colloquially as West Germany until reunification). At university, Wenders originally studied to become a physician before switching to philosophy before terminating his studies in 1965. Moving to Paris, he intended to become a painter.
He fell in love with the cinema but failed to gain admission to the French national film school. He supported himself as an engraver while attending movie houses. Upon his return to West Germany in 1967, he was employed by United Artists at its Düsseldorf office before he was accepted by the University of Television and Film Munich school for its autumn 1967 semester, where he remained until 1970. While attending film school, he worked as a newspaper film critic. In addition to shorts, he made a feature film as part of his studies, Summer in the City (1971).
Wenders gained recognition as part of the German New Wave of the 1970s. Other directors that were part of the New German Cinema were Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Werner Herzog. His second feature, a film made from Peter Handke's novel The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (1972), brought him acclaim, as did Alice in the Cities (1974) and Kings of the Road (1976). It was his 1977 feature The American Friend (1977) ("The American Friend"), starring Dennis Hopper as Patricia Highsmith's anti-hero Tom Ripley, that represented his international breakthrough. He was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1977 Cannes Film Festival for "The American Friend", which was cited as Best Foreign Film by the National Board of Review in the United States.
Francis Ford Coppola, as producer, gave Wenders the chance to direct in America, but Hammett (1982) (1982) was a critical and commercial failure. However, his American-made Paris, Texas (1984) (1984) received critical hosannas, winning three awards at Cannes, including the Palme d'Or, and Wenders won a BAFTA for best director. "Paris, Texas" was a prelude to his greatest success, 1987's Wings of Desire (1987) ("Wings of Desire"), which he made back in Germany. The film brought him the best director award at Cannes and was a solid hit, even spawning an egregious Hollywood remake.
Wenders followed it up with a critical and commercial flop in 1991, Until the End of the World (1991) ("Until the End of the World"), though Faraway, So Close! (1993) won the Grand Prize of the Jury at Cannes. Still, is reputation as a feature film director never quite recovered in the United States after the bomb that was "Until the End of the World." Since the mid-1990s, Wenders has distinguished himself as a non-fiction filmmaker, directing several highly acclaimed documentaries, most notably Buena Vista Social Club (1999) and Pina (2011), both of which brought him Oscar nominations.- Actress
- Producer
- Camera and Electrical Department
P.J. (Pamela Jayne) Soles was born on July 17, 1950 in Frankfurt, Germany. Her father came from Holland and her mother from New Jersey. Because her father was working for an international insurance company, the family moved all over the world. P.J. lived in Casablanca, Morocco, and Maracaibo, Venezuela, where she learned to speak fluent Spanish, and then Brussels, Belgium, where she went to high school at the International School of Brussels. When she was at Briarcliff College, she wanted to become the first woman ambassador to the Soviet Union. This career goal changed when she visited the Actors Studio in New York City. She moved to Manhattan and began acting in commercials and modeling for fashion magazines. She was married to J. Stephen Soles during her years in New York, but then made the move to Los Angeles to work in television and movies. At this time, she and Soles' got divorced, but she decided to keep her name as P.J. Soles. She was among the hundreds of actors auditioning for Brian De Palma and George Lucas in their joint casting session for Carrie (1976) and Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). After Carrie, she went to Georgia to film Our Winning Season (1978) and met actor Dennis Quaid. They were married in 1978 in Texas on a dude ranch.
P.J. starred in Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979) with Ramones. Next she filmed Private Benjamin (1980) and then Stripes (1981). She and Quaid were divorced in 1983. P.J. continued doing numerous television and film roles, and then married Skip Holm, who was the stunt pilot on The Right Stuff (1983). They have two children and were divorced in 1998. Still active in television and film, P.J. manages not to let her fans down, but keeps them interested in her work, which keeps on getting better, making her one of the most versatile actresses of her time.- Actor
- Composer
- Additional Crew
Jonas Nay was born in Lübeck, Germany on September 20th, 1990. He is an actor as well as a composer, known for his roles in projects such as 4 Against Z (2005), Line of Separation (2015), Homevideo (2011), Deutschland 83 (2015), Deutschland 86 (2018) and Deutschland 89 (2020). He has won German Television Awards and Grimme Awards for his role in Home Video (2011).- Actor
- Soundtrack
Louis Hofmann was born in the Bensberg district of Bergisch Gladbach, and grew up in Cologne.
His first appearance on TV was for Servicezeit (1997), an evening magazine program on WDR Fernsehen television network. 2 years later, he decided to become an actor and applied to an acting agency and was subsequently represented by Agentur Schwarz.
Hofmann guest-starred in legal comedy-drama Danni Lowinski (2010) and television series Der verlorene Vater (2010). He also appeared in the television film Tod in Istanbul (2010) and the TV series Alarm für Cobra 11 - Die Autobahnpolizei (1996)
Hofmann's first cinematic leading role was in the Tom Sawyer (2011) by director Hermine Huntgeburth's adaptation of Mark Twain's classic novel. Along with Leon Seidel, who played the role of Huck Finn, he sang on the soundtrack of the film in the song, "Barfuß Gehen" ("Going Barefoot"), and represented the same character in The Adventures of Huck Finn (2012).
In 2013, Hofmann played a guest-starring role in an episode of the television series Stolberg (2006). Beginning on 24 October 2013 Hofmann appeared in the comedy The Almost Perfect Man (2013)
His role as Wolfgang in film Sanctuary (2015) earned him the 2015 Bavarian Film Prize as Best Newcomer Actor and the 2016 German Actors Award (Deutscher Schauspielerpreis) in the newcomer category. His first international role as a German prisoner of war in the Danish-German co-production Land of Mine (2015) (Danish: Under sandet) earned him the Best Supporting Actor prize at Denmark's Bodil Awards in 2016. At the 2016 German Film Awards, he received with the Special Prize Jaeger-LeCoultre Homage to German Cinema presented to honor the work of German actors in international films.
In 2016, Hofmann played Phil in Center of My World (2016), a coming-of-age romantic drama film directed by Jakob M. Erwa, based on the 1998 bestselling novel The Centre of the World by Andreas Steinhöfel. He was presented with a European Shooting Stars Award at Berlinale 2017 by the European Film Promotion organization.
He was cast as Jonas Kahnwald in Dark (2017), a science fiction thriller released on Netflix on 1 December 2017 and followed with two seasons. Dark (2017) project was one of four projects he played in a single year, two of them in English.
He played the lead role in the German film Prelude (2019). The film tells about the piano student David, who is going through the torments of first love. Hofmann himself described this picture as "a mixture of the films Whiplash and Black Swan". In an interview, he admitted that only after this film he realized what character parts he is drawn to: to a dramatic, suffering character overwhelmed by life circumstances.- Actress
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Nastassja Kinski was born Nastassja Aglaia Nakszynski on January 24, 1961 in Berlin, Germany, the daughter of German actor Klaus Kinski. In 1976, she met director Roman Polanski, who urged her to study method acting with Lee Strasberg in the United States. Kinski starred in the Italian romantic drama Stay as You Are (1978) with Marcello Mastroianni, gaining her recognition in the United States after the film's release on December 21, 1979. She played the title character in Polanski's romantic drama Tess (1979), an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's novel "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" (1891).
Kinski starred in Francis Ford Coppola's romantic musical One from the Heart (1981), her first film made in the United States. The film became a box office bomb and was a major loss for Coppola's production company Zoetrope Studios. She also starred in the erotic horror movie Cat People (1982) with Malcolm McDowell, a remake of the 1942 classic of the same name. She appeared in Wim Wenders' drama movie Paris, Texas (1984) with Harry Dean Stanton and Dean Stockwell. One of her most acclaimed films, the film won the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) at the Cannes Film Festival.
During the 1990s, Kinski appeared in a number of American films, including the action movie Terminal Velocity (1994) opposite Charlie Sheen, One Night Stand (1997), Your Friends and Neighbors (1998), John Landis' Susan's Plan (1998), and The Lost Son (1999). She has appeared in more than 60 films in Europe and the United States.- Actor
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Dominic Monaghan is best known for his role in the movie adaptations of "Lord of the Rings". Before that, he became known in England for his role in the British television drama Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (1996).
Monaghan was born in Berlin, West Germany, to British parents Maureen, a nurse, and Austin Monaghan, a science teacher. His family moved back to England when he was eleven. He was studying English Literature, Drama and Geography at Sixth Form College when he was offered the co-starring role in the series, which ran for four seasons. His other television credits include This Is Personal: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper (2000) and a leading role in Monsignor Renard (2000), a series starring John Thaw.
On the stage Monaghan has performed in the world premiere UK production of The Resurrectionists, Whale and Annie and Fanny from Bolton to Rome. Since watching Star Wars when he was six years old, Dominic has been consumed by films. His other obsessions include writing, music, fashion, playing/watching soccer and surfing. Utilizing his writing skills, he and LOTR co-star Billy Boyd are collaborating on a script.
Born and raised in Berlin, Monaghan and his family moved to England when he was twelve. In addition to speaking fluent German, he has a knack at impersonations and accents. He frequently returns to his hometown of Manchester, England.- Sibel Kekilli is a German actress of Turkish origin. With her debut in Fatih Akin's movie "Head On" she gained major public attention. The film won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival 2004 and her acting performance received several national and international prizes, among them the highly prestigious German film award Lola for Best Actress.
Since then Kekilli played in several national and international productions like "Eve Dönüs" ("Home coming"), awarded Best Actress at the Antalya Film Festival, aside with Josef Bierbichler and Hanna Schygulla in "Winter Journey" ("Winterreise) or the leading role Umay in Feo Aladags "When We Leave" ("Die Fremde") in 2010 which lead to Best Actress Award at the Tribeca Film Festival and once again the Lola award among others.
Apart from other movie roles, as the very successful comedy "What a man" (2011) directed by Matthias Schweighöfer, she has been investigating in the highly regarded German series "Tatort" since 2010.
She has also become widely known as part of the main cast for her role as Shae in the HBO award-winning series "Game of Thrones" (Season 1 until Season 4). - Writer
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Roland Emmerich is a German film director and producer of blockbuster films like The Day After Tomorrow (2004), Godzilla (1998), Independence Day (1996) and The Patriot (2000). Before fame, he originally wanted to be a production designer, but decided to be a director, after watching the original Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). Emmerich began his career in his native Germany. In his youth, he pursued painting and sculpting. While enrolled in the director's program at film school in Munich, his student film The Noah's Ark Principle (1984) went on to open the 1984 Berlin Film Festival. The feature became a huge success and was sold to more than 20 countries. In an amazing trivia, he directed his first feature, The Noah's Ark Principle (1984), in 1984. He is openly gay and a campaigner for the LGBT community.
A director/writer/producer with a flair for special effects-driven action, German Roland Emmerich made himself at home in blockbuster-hungry 1990s Hollywood. Born and educated in West Germany, Emmerich studied production design as well as direction at the Munich Film and Television School. After his student film, The Noah's Ark Principle, debuted at the 1984 Berlin Film Festival, Emmerich formed his production company Centropolis and directed supernatural fantasies Making Contact (1986) and Ghost Chase (1987), and the straight-to-video action film Moon 44 (1990). On the latter, he met actor Dean Devlin who subsequently switched jobs to become Emmerich's writing and producing partner once Emmerich set up shop in Hollywood.
After making his solo Hollywood debut directing Jean-Claude Van Damme in the cyborg action fest Universal Soldier (1992), Emmerich and Devlin revealed a talent for conjuring A-level action spectacles out of B-movie scenarios with their first film together, Stargate (1994). A space odyssey mixing ancient Egyptiana and high-tech wizardry, Stargate became an unexpected hit. Emmerich hit his blockbuster stride with his next film, Independence Day (1996). With its eye-popping destruction of major cities and climactic annihilation of a spacecraft via portable computer, Independence Day blew away its summer movie competition on the strength of its visual flash. Geared to repeat with the endlessly- and creatively-hyped version of Godzilla (1998), Emmerich instead faced the conundrum of directing a $100 million grossing film that did not live up to box office expectations. Emmerich and Devlin next turned their epic visions to the decidedly lower-tech (but still CGI-enhanced) action of the American Revolution in the Mel Gibson summer vehicle The Patriot (2000).- Actor
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Actor, producer, writer, and director Til Schweiger is Germany's best-known actor and also the country's most successful director. With more than 51 Million admissions no other German filmmaker drew more people to cinemas. He runs his own production company Barefoot Films based in Berlin, Germany.
Til Schweiger (born December 19, 1963) was raised along with his two brothers in his hometown Giessen. In his early years, Schweiger began studying German and Medicine. He decided to drop out of university to pursue his career as an actor and went to drama school from 1986-1989. After graduation, he played at several theaters as a stage actor to gain more experience.
In 1991, Schweiger landed his first lead role in Manta, Manta (1991) following his big breakthrough role on Maybe... Maybe Not (1994) with the support of Germany's renowned film producer and mentor Bernd Eichinger. In 1996, Til Schweiger founded his first film production company Mr. Brown Entertainment together with business partner and film producer Tom Zickler. Schweiger debuted as producer with Knockin' on Heaven's Door (1997) winning several Festival Awards. The road movie remains a cult favorite with audiences worldwide. Within the same year, Schweiger was the first foreign actor to win the "Polish Oscar" at the International Warsaw Film festival for his performance in in Bandyta (1997). He has since built up acting credits in dozens of German movies including Der Eisbär (1998), where Schweiger made his debut as director.
Judas Kiss (1998) was Schweiger's first role in an international film. He then appeared in several internationally acclaimed movies including SLC Punk! (1998), The Replacement Killers (1998), Driven (2001), Intimate Affairs (2001), Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life (2003), King Arthur (2004), New Year's Eve (2011), and many more.
To this day, Schweiger has delivered a series of German-language hits and won numerous Awards as actor/writer/director/producer: Barefoot (2005) grossed about $7,7 million with 1,5 million admissions, Rabbit Without Ears (2007) was up to 2014 Schweiger's most successful film and earned some $74 million locally, followed by the sequel Rabbit Without Ears 2 (2009). In 2011, Schweiger wrote, produced and directed Kokowääh (2011), which grossed $43 million, starring alongside his youngest daughter Emma. A sequel hit theaters in 2013.
As an actor, he received widespread critical acclaim and further recognition for his portrayal as the legendary Hugo Stieglitz in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (2009).
In December 2014, Til Schweiger released the family-friendly dramedy Head Full of Honey (2014) , which he co-wrote, directed, produced and starred in. It is his most successful film to date breaking the 6, 3 million admissions barrier of his 2007 hit Rabbit Without Ears (2007).
Schweiger, who started his career in German TV, plays the lead role on hit local crimes series Tatort (1970)(Hamburg) (Scene of the Crime). His debut generated the best ratings for the long-running procedural in 20 years.- Director
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Director. Writer. Producer. Actor. Poet. He studied history, literature and theatre for some time, but didn't finish it and founded instead his own film production company in 1963. Later in his life, Herzog also staged several operas in Bayreuth, Germany, and at the Milan Scala in Italy. Herzog has won numerous national and international awards for his poetic feature and documentary films.