August Diehl (; born 4 January 1976) is a German actor, primarily known to international audiences for playing

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

major Dieter Hellstrom in

Quentin Tarantino Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American filmmaker, actor, and author. Quentin Tarantino filmography, His films are characterized by graphic violence, extended dialogue often featuring much profanity, and references to ...

's ''

Inglourious Basterds ''Inglourious Basterds'' is a 2009 epic film, epic war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars an ensemble cast including Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger ...

'' (2009) and Michael "Mike" Krause, Evelyn Salt's husband, in the movie ''

Salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...

''. He is also known for his leading roles in the films '' The Counterfeiters'' (2007), '' The Young Karl Marx'' (2017), and Terrence Malick's '' A Hidden Life'' (2019).

Life and career

Diehl was born in

West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...

. His father is actor Hans Diehl, his mother is a

costume designer A costume designer is a person who designs costumes for a film, stage production or television show. The role of the costume designer is to create the characters' outfits or costumes and balance the scenes with texture and colour, etc. The costum ...

, and his brother is a composer. His family was frequently moving around. Diehl spent his childhood in

Auvergne Auvergne (; ; or ) is a cultural region in central France. As of 2016 Auvergne is no longer an administrative division of France. It is generally regarded as conterminous with the land area of the historical Province of Auvergne, which was dis ...

, France, and moved back to

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

when he was nine years old. The family lived in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, and

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

. Growing up in a family of artists, at the age of 18, he played Franz Mohr in a school theatre production of '' Die Räuber'' by

Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, philosopher and historian. Schiller is considered by most Germans to be Germany's most important classical playwright. He was born i ...

. After passing the ''Abitur'' exams, Diehl studied acting at the renowned Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch in Berlin. In 2000, he was named one of European film's Shooting Stars by the

European Film Promotion European Film Promotion (EFP) is an organisation with a mission of promoting European films internationally. A network of 38 national film promotion institutes which represent films from their respective territories. Under the EFP flag, the member ...

. In 2009, Diehl played

major Dieter Hellstrom in

's ''

''. In 2024, he appeared in the fantasy-drama ''

The Master and Margarita ''The Master and Margarita'' () is a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, written in the Soviet Union between 1928 and 1940. A censored version, with several chapters cut by editors, was published posthumously in ''Moscow (magazine), Moscow'' magazine in ...

'', based on the novel by

Mikhail Bulgakov Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov ( ; rus, links=no, Михаил Афанасьевич Булгаков, p=mʲɪxɐˈil ɐfɐˈnasʲjɪvʲɪdʑ bʊlˈɡakəf; – 10 March 1940) was a Russian and Soviet novelist and playwright. His novel ''The M ...

, playing a

devil A devil is the mythical personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conce ...

-like character called

Woland Woland () is a fictional character in the novel ''The Master and Margarita'' by the Russian (Soviet) author Mikhail Bulgakov, written between 1928 and 1940. Woland is the mysterious foreigner and professor whose visit to Moscow sets the plot rolli ...

. And in the historical drama ''

Bonhoeffer Dietrich Bonhoeffer (; 4 February 1906 – 9 April 1945) was a German Lutheranism, Lutheran pastor, Neo-orthodoxy, neo-orthodox theologian and anti-Nazism, Nazi dissident who was a key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writin ...

''. His upcoming projects are ''The Disappearance'', in which he portrays

Josef Mengele Josef Mengele (; 16 March 19117 February 1979) was a Nazi German (SS) officer and physician during World War II at the Russian front and then at Auschwitz during the Holocaust, often dubbed the "Angel of Death" (). He performed Nazi hum ...

, and the action film '' Control''. In 2025, Diehl will appear in Lucile Hadžihalilović's fantasy-drama '' The Ice Tower''.

Personal life

Diehl was married to actress Julia Malik, but the marriage ended amicably in 2016. He has two children with Malik: a daughter born in May 2009 and a son born in 2012. Diehl plays the guitar and speaks German, Spanish, French, and English.

Acting credits

Film

Television

Theatre

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Diehl, August 1976 births 20th-century German male actors 21st-century German male actors Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts alumni German Film Award winners German male film actors Living people Male actors from Berlin Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners Waldorf school alumni