News

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Christofer von Beau, son of an American father and a German mother, was born in Munich, Germany.  His love for acting was actually incited by one of his mother’s friends who was an actress herself.  As a teenager, he moved with his mother to the U.S. where he spent the following 20 years.  While in America, he was accepted to the prestigious American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.  Upon graduating successfully, he went on to take part in a Shakespeare workshop under the tutelage of Judy Magee and on top of that enjoyed a singing education with William Drake.  At the beginning of his career, Christofer von Beau played in numerous musicals like The Little Shop of Horrors and The Rocky Horror Show directed by Anna Vaughn at the Berliner Kammerspiele.  To this day he refers to this experience as “the best he had” when it comes to stage work.  More work such as the West Side StoryOthello, or Godspell was to follow.  His first TV appearances date back to 1995 but his breakthrough role was Franz Ainfachnur on the TV series SOKO 5113.  Starting off in 2002 as a supporting series regular in 74 episodes, he now has risen the ranks to become inspector and thereby one of the series leads on that show which was renamed SOKO Muenchen at the beginning of the 2015/2016 season.  In 2012 he delivered a strong performance as the leading male, Raymond, opposite Jutta Speidel in the ARD network film 24 Cows But No Man.  Whenever on set, Christofer von Beau’s upbeat nature and positive attitude lights up everyone around him.  We are so thankful to have him on our roster and are keenly looking forward to lots of interesting and fun projects together.

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Butz Buse puts all his heart and soul into his work as an actor.  His career started 20 years ago on the stage in Paris and Amsterdam.  Lately, Butz Buse has increasingly gained prominence within the film and TV industry.  He is a master of his craft to an extent that repeatedly draws renowned directors like Felix Fuchssteiner, Wolfgang Murnberger, Marcus H. Rosenmueller, and Ralf Westhoff to name but a few.  But he also loves to put his fine work into short-film projects like Marc Steck’s GUMMIFAUST  which garnered him an award at this year’s “2015 Genrenale 3”.  With verve and total commitment, he creates his characters all the way down to splaying out his little finger in a certain position or pulling the corners of his mouth in the minimalist of ways.  He has studied all of them along with their idiosyncrasies: the local original, the stuffy, the conservative, the serious, the accurate, the quirky, the sociopathic misfit.  He brings to life his characters in unforgettable ways and thereby makes us shudder.  Butz Buse will go anywhere.  We wish him every role the world has to offer.

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Tom Mikulla started his classical theater education at the Hochschule Leipzig. During his years at drama school he was already offered several film roles and by the time he finished his studies he had been cast in the TV series Fahrschule Kampmann as well as in Und Tschüss! Sadly, the latter was the only production so far that granted him the opportunity to create a character with a Saxon accent. Tom Mikulla loves his home town of Dresden but states (in a clear standard German accent): “It is very difficult for productions to place a Saxon-speaking character on a show because for the audience he or she will most often come across as the stereotypical goofball”. It is definitely not the goofball type that Tom Mikulla usually gets cast for in TV series like Motorrad Cop, Medicopter, or Rosenheim Cops, but instead, he plays roles like policemen, pilots, detectives, guys that have their heart in the right place. Nevertheless, Tom Mikulla also loves to play the slick and two-faced desperado type of guy and manages to portray both kinds of roles in a perfectly convincing way.

In spring 2013, Tom Mikulla performed on the stage of Dresden’s Societaetstheater in a new play called Sprechende Männer (dir.: Thomas Stecher), which portrays two stereotypical men having a not-so-typical conversation on ways of life in our society. All those who want to learn more about what men really feel should see the next performance on September 22nd.

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Patrick Nellessen was born in Munich where he also earned his highschool diploma (Abitur).  He finished his non-military service and for two semesters enrolled for German studies at the university.  Though he never lost his enthusiasm for the humanities, he did audition in 2009 at one of the most reputable German drama schools, Theaterakademie August Everding, and got accepted right after his first try.  During his studies there he did partake in plays at both the Akademietheater and the Prinzregententheater.  Following a successful final showcase at his drama school, he was asked by the artistic director of the Theater Erlangen to join the ensemble there.  He took the chance and for two years, starting in 2013, he got to play leading characters in classical as well as in modern plays.  During those two years, he actually managed to tuck under his belt a whopping 14 different productions.  Meanwhile Patrick Nellessen has come back  to his home town Munich where he works as a freelance actor.  In 2016, he returned to the stage of Munich’s Metropol Theater for the highly successful production of Mnouchkine’s play “Die letzte Karawanserei” (dir.: Jochen Schölch).  Also, he was cast in another current production there, “Habe die Ehre” (dir.: Miguel Abrantes Ostrowski) which is the most fast-paced play I have ever come to see.

Let me say that Patrick Nellessen beautifully mastered his first film roles, one of which  deserves a special mention: his collaboration with director Sherry Hormann and DoP Michael Ballhaus.  In a favorable sense, you can picture the actor Patrick Nellessen as a self-questioning hero.  His work seems effortless and evermore focused.  If I were to pick the two traits I like most about Patrick, I’d pick his sincere honesty and distinct voice.

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Born in 1978 in the town of Munich, Leo Reisinger was raised outside of the city receiving piano lessons and going through vocational education to eventually become a carpenter. It was by “a happy chance” as Leo puts it that he came across acting and then decided to change paths to take yet more training, this time though to become an actor. So he finished his studies at the Neue Muenchner Schauspielschule Ali Wunsch Koenig and was offered his first role by iconic director Franz X. Bogner. The two turned out to be a natural team having the same idiom of a local southern-Bavarian accent that is spoken in the countryside around Munich. More work followed by way of collaboration with directors as well known as Max Faerberboeck, Sibylle Tafel, Johannes Fabrick, and Marvin Kren. In 2014, Leo played the lead in the Student Academy Award winning film “Border Patrol” helmed by Peter Baumann.  Since 2018, Leo Reisinger is the eponymous character of Toni in the ARD network primetime series “Toni, Maennlich, Hebamme”.  Apart from acting, Leo plays in and composes songs for his own rock band and on top of that is the head writer for two in-development TV series.  Not to forget are Leo’s English speaking skills that he got to perfect during a one-year stay in Australia.

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It happened during his high school graduation party that Herbert Schäfer parodied a drunken principal which definitely made him gain the favor of his fellow students and also rendered grades a matter of secondary importance.  Everyone who witnessed the scene knew that Herbert Schäfer was to become an actor.  He also convinced the Otto Falckenberg Drama School audition panel of his skills and subsequently received the best of acting training that there is in Germany.  Upon performing his absolutely convincing graduation monologues he became a fixed member with the ensemble at the theater in Ulm, Germany where for four years he got to play classics by Schiller, Goethe, Lessing, Kleist, and Brecht.  Following a 3 year intermission and a couple of forays into summer theater, he joined another fixed ensemble, this time at the Theater Freiburg.  This was a time in which plays  started to be interpreted in a more modern and unconventional way.  At that time he also got to know Amélie Niermeyer.  She helped Herbert Schäfer take a big leap forward as an actor and they collaborated in a number of plays at the Schauspielhaus Duesseldorf.  Risa Kes who was one of the very first and finest casting directors, introduced him to director Rainer Kaufmann which paved Herbert Schäfer’s way to work in film.  Thanks to his impressively sonorous voice he is also a well-established narrator for radio features, radio plays, audio books as well as for TV documentaries on the French-German TV network ARTE.  As for truly convincing lead roles, Herbert Schäfer is currently performing in Superstar sucht Deutschland at the Kammerspiele Landshut, Germany and in Benefiz at the Metropol Theater München.  His last lead performance in a film for the big screen was opposite Ulrike Tscharre in Ian Dilthey’s Eines Tages . . .. Herbert Schäfer is a thoroughbred actor!

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It’s been about 20 years now during which Gilbert von Sohlern has been working as a first-class actor on stage as well as for small and big screen productions helmed only by the finest of directors whose hearts Gilbert von Sohlern convincingly won over right at the start of his career when he played in FLORIAN (dir.: Bernd Fischerauer).  His leading role in the TV film KEIN PLATZ FÜR IDIOTEN (dir: Gedeon Kovacs) garnered him a nomination at the Adolf Grimme Prize.  This was followed by collaboration with noted directors Jo Baier and Joseph Vilsmaier.  What better start could one wish for?  By now, Gilbert von Sohlern is indisputably a part of the core group of the most popular figures in hit series that have run for years on German TV:  his interpretation of series regulars like Monsignore Muehlich on PFARRER BRAUN or police officer Robert Dobner on MONACO 110 have undoubtedly added their share for both ensembles to receive their due prestige.  This is owed to the authenticity of his performances, be it as a doctor, a priest, or a police officer.  He convinces through earnest dilligence underlaid by subtle and dry humor which makes the viewer grin.  Having said this, he can even make us guffaw whenever he has that Frankonian mischief in his eyes.  Upon learning that he was raised an aristocrat at the Goessweinstein Castle, one does understand why.  We wish for Gilbert von Sohlern to come across those directors who fully appreciate that wonderful and artless prowess of his and accordingly give him the leeway he needs to further evolve.

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