Biographie

Lives in Berlin and has a daughter, Paulina and a son, Jacob.

Speaks fluent French and dubbed himself in French production "Princesse Marie" (2004).

Only actor winning two Adolf-Grimme-Awards for two different productions in one year ever (2002).

Grew up in Stuttgart, Germany.

Plays the guitar and originally wanted to become a musician.

[As someone from Stuttgart, did you ever speak the Swabian dialect?] In a terribly strong fashion. [How did you get rid of it?] Only with a lot of difficulties. The Swabian as such is generally taciturn and if he is required to speak standard German, to him it's as if he has to learn a new language. All of a sudden he is supposed to pronounce the endings of words. This scares him and so he withdraws into mumbling. It was a long way until I even dared to speak standard German.

In a lot of cases these environments [the 70s, Swabia, yearning feelings while living in rural areas, religion and the limitedness of it all] also exploded eventually. A lot of people from terrorist groups came from environments like these. It's just that I was completely different. A good boy who wanted to measure up to the expectations there were. On the other hand I had, probably thanks to my mother, the guts to take risks. To not follow everything blindly, but to find my own way.

[Originally you wanted to become a music therapist which sounds a bit like a woman's man...] Does it? Ok, this wish originated when I was 15 and affiliated with a sort of club via the church, as leader of a youth group, Jungschar is what they were called back then. I didn't do devotions with them. Instead, I tried to give them an understanding of caring social behavior. We went on holidays together, played football, made music. I always had my guitar with me. And so I thought you can join these two things together, the music and the social aspect.

I don't want to be part of the living room furniture anyway, becoming famous is not my goal.

I watched the first season of Homeland in one go, within two days. Then I stopped. Because it is simply addictive - and I detest addictions. I am already addicted to nicotine. But addicted to TV series - no.