Niels Ruf (born 21 May 1973) is a German television presenter, author and actor.

Early life

Born in

Worms Worms may refer to: *Worm, an invertebrate animal with a tube-like body and no limbs Places *Worms, Germany, a city **Worms (electoral district) *Worms, Nebraska, U.S. *Worms im Veltlintal, the German name for Bormio, Italy Arts and entertainme ...

, Ruf attended high school at Rhein-Wied-Gymnasium in

Neuwied Neuwied () is a town in the north of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, capital of the District of Neuwied. Neuwied lies on the east bank of the Rhine, 12 km northwest of Koblenz, on the railway from Frankfurt am Main to Cologne. Th ...

Career

Writing

Ruf worked for one year at the German newspaper ''Rhein-Zeitung''. He also wrote scripts for the German children's television program ''Clubhouse''. He worked as a

columnist A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Column (newspaper), Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the fo ...

for publications including music magazine ''Intro'', the weekly magazine ''

Die Zeit ''Die Zeit'' (, "The Time") is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles. History The ...

'', and ''

Maxim Maxim or Maksim may refer to: Entertainment * ''Maxim'' (magazine), an international men's magazine ** ''Maxim'' (Australia), the Australian edition ** ''Maxim'' (India), the Indian edition *Maxim Radio, ''Maxim'' magazine's radio channel on Sir ...

''.

Television

At 21 Ruf was cast by

ZDF ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...

as the presenter of the video game show ''X Base''. Afterwards he became the presenter of his own call-in show, ''Niels' Ruf'', on DSF. The series was cancelled after nine episodes; Ruf later stated the cancellation was "because of

blasphemy Blasphemy is a speech crime and religious crime usually defined as an utterance that shows contempt, disrespects or insults a deity, an object considered sacred or something considered inviolable. Some religions regard blasphemy as a religiou ...

". He then worked as a freelance employee for

Focus TV The Focus TV Productions GmbH is a German TV production company headquartered in Munich. It is a subsidiary of ''Focus Magazine Publishing'', a Hubert Burda Media company, and was founded in 1995. Focus TV produces, among others, magazine progra ...

while pursuing acting opportunities. Ruf was cast by German music television station

Viva II Viva Zwei was a German music channel aired and distributed throughout Europe. The channel was launched on 21 March 1995 under the name "Viva II" as a second channel to the main channel VIVA in Germany and lasted until 7 January 2002, when it got ...

in 1998 for the TV show ''Kamikaze'', which he hosted and produced. His provocative monologues and announcements were characterised as "rabble-rousing". He earned a reputation as a "sex piglet" and "scandal-facilitator". In 2002, Ruf started a

hidden camera A hidden camera or spy camera is a camera used to photograph or record subjects, often people, without their knowledge. The camera may be considered "hidden" because it is not visible to the subject being filmed, or is disguised as another obje ...

show, ''Dumm erwischt'', in which people on the street had tricks played on them. Six episodes aired. In October 2006, Ruf hosted ''Die Niels Ruf Show'' on Sat.1's comedy channel. After criticism for low ratings, Ruf left Sat.1 and produced the internet-exclusive show ''Looki Looki''.

Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (; short form often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a German telecommunications company that is headquartered in Bonn and is the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. Deutsche Telekom was ...

cancelled the project in May 2011. In 2007, Ruf played divorce attorney Simon C. Herzog in the sitcom ''Herzog''. The series was cancelled due to poor ratings after three episodes. In 2008, the ''Niels Ruf Show'' ran on Sat1., but was cancelled early the same year due to bad ratings. Ruf starred in a

mockumentary A mockumentary (a blend of ''mock'' and ''documentary''), fake documentary or docu-comedy is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events but presented as a documentary. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on c ...

web series ''Josef Gyrls – Tochter der Freiheit'' ("Josef Gyrls – Daughter of Freedom"). He appeared in the German version of ''Hell's Kitchen'' in the spring of 2014, but had to leave in the fifth episode due to an injury. In March 2016, he appeared in the ninth season of the German live dance show '' Let's Dance''; he dropped out in the second round.

Films

Ruf appeared in the films ''Charley's Tante'' (1996), ''Und alles wegen Mama'' (1998) and ''Wie die Karnickel'' (2002). In December 2001, Universal Mercury released a DVD titled ''Niels Ruf – Pest of Kamikaze 1998–2001'', with excerpts and previously unpublished scenes from his ''Kamikaze'' program.

Music

In 2000, Ruf and German DJ WestBam covered

Abwärts Abwärts ("Downwards") is a German post-punk band from Hamburg. Members FM Einheit and Mark Chung would leave the group in the early 1980s to join West Berlin band Einstürzende Neubauten (, 'Collapsing New Buildings') is a German experimen ...

' song "Computerstaat" for the compilation ''Pop 2000''.

Personal life

Ruf briefly dated German actress and comedian Anke Engelke in 2000. In June 2001, Ruf came under attack by the public when a report circulated alleging that he had made insensitive jokes about a colleague's

skin cancer Skin cancers are cancers that arise from the skin. They are due to the development of abnormal cells that have the ability to invade or spread to other parts of the body. There are three main types of skin cancers: basal-cell skin cancer (BCC) ...

diagnosis. This led to his firing from the VIVA network. Ruf denied the allegations and threatened to sue for libel. After making an insensitive tweet about German jazz/pop musician

Roger Cicero Roger Marcel Cicero Ciceu (6 July 1970 – 24 March 2016) was a German jazz and pop musician. Biography Roger Cicero was born in 1970 in Berlin to Romanian jazz pianist Eugen Cicero and dancer Lili Cziczeo. Cicero represented Germany at the E ...

's death in March 2016, Ruf was heavily criticized in the media. The incident caused his management team to part ways with him.

Awards

*2008: MIRA Award *2009: German Comedy Award (nomination)

Filmography and TV

*1996: ' *1998: ''Und alles wegen Mama'' *2002: ''Wie die Karnickel'' *2008: ''Herzog'' (television series) *2012: ''Josef Gyrls – Tochter der Freiheit'' (web series) *2013: ''

Eins gegen Eins Eins gegen Eins was a German political talk show, hosted by Claus Strunz, which was broadcast on Sat.1 and produced by ''Focus TV Produktions GmbH''. Concept At ''Eins gegen Eins'', two persons, each with fundamentally different opinions, shoul ...

'' (season 4, episode 3) *2014: ''Hell's Kitchen'' (show) *2015: ''Im Knast'' (sitcom,

ZDFneo ZDFneo is a German free-to-air television channel, programmed for an audience aged 25 to 49 to counter the primarily older-skewing main channels of public broadcasters ZDF and ARD. It replaced ZDF's documentary channel ZDFdokukanal on 1 Nove ...

, 1 episode) *2016: '' Let's Dance'' (show)

References

External links

*
Niels Ruf
on Twitter
YouTube channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruf, Niels 1973 births Living people German male actors German television presenters Sat.1 people