Sebastian Koch

Koch has portrayed historically significant personalities, among Rudolf Höss in Costa-Gavras Hochhuth's adaptation Amen (Der Stellvertreter). He appeared in The Tunnel, a made-for-television German film about the idea of going underground by digging a tunnel shortly after the construction of the Berlin wall in 1961, and in Peter Keglevic’s historical drama Two Days of Hope about the uprising on 17 June 1953.

Sebastian Koch (born 31 May 1962) is a German television and film actor.

He originally wanted to be a musician, but production by artistic director Claus Peymann influenced him in the late 1970s to change careers to become an actor.

Koch had his first TV appearance in 1980 in the 77th episode of the series Derrick, followed by an episode in the popular crime series Tatort in 1986.

From 1982 to 1985, Koch studied at the renowned Otto Falckenberg School in Munich.

In addition to his cinematic work, he played a diversity of different roles on stage.

Koch portrayed amongst other Peer Gynt and Leonce in Leonce and Lena at the municipal theatre of Darmstadt.

At the Schiller theatre in Berlin he played the character Roller in Schiller's The Robbers and Orest in Goethe's Iphigenie auf Tauris.

A couple of years later, he took over the role of Lord Goring in Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband in the playhouse Bochum under the direction of Armin Holz.

He acted in numerous thrillers like Der Mann mit der Maske, Die brennende Schnecke, and in 1997 in Heinrich Breloer's two-piece , in which he portrayed the role of Andreas Baader.

For the title role in and for his performance as the writer Klaus Mann in Heinrich Breloer's docudrama The Manns – A Novel of the Century, he won respectively in 2002 the Adolf Grimme Award, one of the most prestigious awards for German television.

The latter was furthermore distinguished as "TV event of the year" with the German Television Award.

In addition, Koch received the Bavarian TV Award for the same movie.

His first international productions included the historical drama Napoleon, which Koch in appeared alongside Gérard Depardieu, John Malkovich and Isabella Rossellini and brought him more attention.

He portrayed the youthful lover of Catherine Deneuve, Rodolphe Löwenstein, in Marie und Freud.

Koch appeared in Stauffenberg (2004 by Jo Baier and winner of the German Film Award); and he played Albert Speer in Heinrich Breoler's mini-series Speer und Er in 2004 – his third collaboration with the director following Death Game and The Manns – A Novel of the Century.

He received for his performance as the Nazi architect Albert Speer the German TV Award.

Sebastian Koch appeared in Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's drama The Lives of Others in 2006 as one of the leading roles.

He portrayed the playwright Georg Dreyman, who lived in East Germany with his lover, a dissident who was spied on and monitored.

Paul Verhoeven's movie Black Book (Zwartboek) was also shot in 2006.

Koch played a Nazi Officer in occupied Holland who falls in love with a Jewish member of the resistance (Carice van Houten).

Black Book celebrated its premiere at the Venice Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival.

He is known for roles in the 2007 Academy Award-winning film The Lives of Others, in Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies, and as Otto Düring in the fifth season of the Showtime series Homeland.

Koch grew up in Stuttgart with his mother who was a single parent.

The movie received an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2007 as well as the BAFTA Award, the César, and the German and European Film Award.

Koch himself was nominated several times for his work in The Lives of Others and received the Globo d'oro for Best European Actor, The Quadriga, and the Bambi.

After shooting the movie in 2007/2008, Koch appeared on camera for the international production of Jack London's classic psychological adventure novel Sea Wolf, where Koch portrayed a lone Despot of both brutal cruelty and longing romance.

The shooting of this two-parter based on Nigel Williams’ script and under Mike Barker’s direction took place in Halifax, Canada.

The shooting of the movie Manipulation (adapted from the novel Das Verhör des Harry Wind) took also place in 2008, with Koch and Klaus Maria Brandauer playing leading roles.

The mini-series won the Directors Guild of Canada Award and Koch was nominated in 2010 for his role as Wolf Larsen for the international Emmy Award.

In 2010, Koch was the male title role in the English independent tragicomedy Albatross under the direction of Niall MacCormick.

He played the role of Prof. Bressler in the movie Unknown (with Liam Neeson and Diane Kruger) under the direction of Jaume Collet-Serra.

In the summer of 2010, he took a guest role alongside Eva Green and Joseph Fiennes in the TV series Camelot from the Irish RT Film production, followed by the UFA production Bella Block – Stich ins Herz under the direction of Stephan Wagner, in which Koch played the role of Max Klöckner.

As a host of the ZDF production Terra X, Koch presented the Cologne Cathedral, the Neuschwanstein Castle and the Dresden Frauenkirche.

In 2011, Koch appeared in the Czech production The Shadow of the Horse (Ve Stinu), in which Koch played the leading role of the investigator Zenk, whose mission is to win through one personal rival and through the regime of communist Prague in the 50s.

In the German production adapted from Bernhard Schlink's novel The Weekend in 2012, Koch portrays an amnestied RAF terrorist (Jens Kessler), who has a reunion with his old mates.

In the same year, Koch began shooting the Greek-Russian drama film God Loves Caviar based upon the true story of Ioannis Varvakis, played by Koch, a former pirate who moved up to being a Greek caviar merchant and eventual benefactor from Psara.

The international cast also included Catherine Deneuve as Catherine the Great of Russia and John Cleese as Officer McCormick.

Furthermore, Koch played the title role in Suspension of Disbelief, a thriller by Mike Figgis, which was followed by part 5 of the Die Hard movies, with Koch as Bruce Willis' antagonist.

In 2013, Ridley Scott (director and producer) began working on The Vatican, a pilot episode for a Showtime series about intrigues concerning the Pope and mysteries and secrets within the Catholic Church.