Dimitrij Schaad (, Dmitri Alexandrovich Schaad; born 17 September 1985)Dimitrij Schaad
''

Munzinger-Archiv Munzinger-Archiv is a German Publishing, publisher and online encyclopedia based in the Baden-Württemberg city of Ravensburg. The content of the archive includes entries about people in politics, business, culture, sport, music and society, abou ...

'', Retrieved 7 August 2024) is a German actor,

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

, and

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

. In addition to a stage career in Germany, he is known for his acting roles in the

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

series ''

Kleo ''Kleo'' is a German action -thriller comedy television series co-created by Hanno Hackfort, Richard Kropf, and Bob Konrad for Netflix, premiering in 2022. It follows the revenge journey of a former East German Stasi assassin, Kleo Straub ( Jella ...

'', German film adaptations of '' The Kangaroo Chronicles'' series, and other screen roles.

Early life and education

Schaad was born in

Kaskelen Kaskelen (, ''Qaskeleñ'') is a town and seat of Karasay District in Almaty Region of south-eastern Kazakhstan.National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. GeoNames GeoNames (or GeoNames.org) is a user-editable geographical database available a ...

Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as Soviet Kazakhstan, the Kazakh SSR, KSSR, or simply Kazakhstan, was one of the transcontinental country, transcontinental Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Un ...

, and grew up near

Almaty Almaty, formerly Alma-Ata, is the List of most populous cities in Kazakhstan, largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population exceeding two million residents within its metropolitan area. Located in the foothills of the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

, until he was eight years old. In 1993, he moved with his family to Germany, not knowing a word of the language.(19 August 2020)
Ein freier Mann
''

Die Zeit (, ) 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 first edition of was ...

'' He went to high school in Mengen, a small town in

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

. After graduation he studied at the

Bayerische Theaterakademie August Everding The Bayerische Theaterakademie August Everding (Bavarian Theatre Academy August Everding) at the Prinzregententheater in Munich, was founded by August Everding in 1993. The academy offers theatrical students eight different programs and through th ...

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

from 2005 to 2009, and in 2009 at the State Institute for the Performing Arts in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

.Kuhlmann, Jennifer. (13 November 2014)
Gefragter Nachwuchsschauspieler aus Mengen
'' Schwäbische Post''(R)Evolution
Landgraf.de He performed at the Metropol-Theater and

Munich Kammerspiele The Munich Kammerspiele (German: Münchner Kammerspiele) is a state-funded German-language theater company based at the ''Schauspielhaus'' on Maximilianstraße (Munich), Maximilianstrasse in the Bavarian capital. The company currently has three ...

in Munich, and had an acting scholarship from the

Deutscher Bühnenverein The Deutscher Bühnenverein is an organization representing 430 theatres, opera houses, drama, ballet and opera companies and orchestras in Germany. It is involved in artistic, legal, organisational and political questions relevant to its members a ...

(German Theatre and Orchestra Association) from 2006 to 2008.Die Känguru-Verschwörung - Press sheet
p. 12 (2022)

Theatre

In 2009 Schaad joined a theatre group in

Essen Essen () is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as well as ...

and moved to

Schauspiel Bochum The Schauspielhaus Bochum is one of the notable drama theatres in Germany. It is located on Königsallee in Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, ...

from 2010 to 2013. He joined the troupe at the

Maxim Gorki Theater The Maxim Gorki Theatre () is a theatre in Berlin-Mitte named after the Soviet writer Maxim Gorky. In 2012, the Mayor of Berlin Klaus Wowereit named Şermin Langhoff as the artist director of the theatre. History It is the oldest concert hall bui ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

in 2013. In many of the productions there, Schaad performed

monologue In theatre, a monologue (also known as monolog in North American English) (in , from μόνος ''mónos'', "alone, solitary" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts ...

s that he had written himself. For the 2013/14 season he was voted Young Actor of the Year in the ''Theater Heute'' (Theatre Today) critics' poll. He has been a freelance lecturer at the

Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts The Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts (German: ''Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch'', ''HFS''), located in the Mitte district of Berlin, Germany, was founded in 1951 as the National Theatre School in Berlin with the status of colleg ...

since 2015. From 2019 he started devoting more time to film roles and writing, while still doing some theatre roles.Esau, Danina (9 May 2023)
Alles, nur nicht Krimi und Pseudorealismus
''Prisma'' (interview with Schaad, he notes he is still doing shows at Gorki Theater in Berlin and Thalia Theater in Hamburg, and will have his first solo stage show in Berlin in November 2023)(2 March 2020)
Schauspieler Dimitrij Schaad: „Und du weißt, Mittelmaß funktioniert nicht“
''

Berliner Zeitung The ''Berliner Zeitung'' (; ) is a daily newspaper based in Berlin, Germany. Founded in East Germany in 1945, it is the only East German paper to achieve national prominence since Reunification of Germany, reunification. It is published by Berl ...

Film and TV

Schaad had roles in the TV series ''

Killing Eve ''Killing Eve'' is a British spy thriller television series produced in the United Kingdom by Sid Gentle Films for BBC America and BBC Three (streaming service), BBC Three. The series follows Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh), a British intelligence age ...

'', ''

Das Boot (; ) is a 1981 West Germany, West German war film written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen, produced by Günter Rohrbach, and starring Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer and Klaus Wennemann. An Film adaptation, adaptation of Lothar-Günthe ...

'', and ''Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo''. From 2022 he played the lead male role of Sven Petzold in the Netflix series ''

''.Hale, Mike (30 July 2024)
‘Kleo’ Review: Spy vs. a Lot of Other Spies
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', 30 July 2024. He had his first lead film role in the film adaptation of '' The Kangaroo Chronicles'' (2020), as well as its 2022 sequel. In 2022, '' Skin Deep'', the feature film directing debut of his brother Alex Schaad, was released, a movie they wrote together and in which Schaad has a leading role.Murphy, J. Kim (3 February 2024)
‘Skin Deep’s’ Schaad Brothers Talk Taking the Dystopia Out of Body Swap Movies and Their Queer Lion Win at the Venice Film Festival
''Variety'' He also starred in the 2023 film ''Sophia, der Tod und ich''.(2 April 2024)

NDR He has been a member of the

Deutsche Filmakademie The Deutsche Filmakademie is a German independently run organization with a focus on filmmaking. History The academy was founded in 2003 in Berlin, on the initiative of Helmut Dietl, Bernd Eichinger, and Ulrich Felsberg. It initially compris ...

since 2022.Neue Mitglieder 2022
Deutsche Filmakademie, archive.org (9 September 2023 image)

Awards

Schaad has won a number of acting and writing awards in Germany, including the in 2023,(28 January 2023)
Ulrich-Wildgruber-Preis für Dimitrij Schaad
nachtkritik.de and the in 2023 for best duo with

Jella Haase Jella Haase (Berlin, October 26, 1992) is a German actress, known internationally for her leading role in the Netflix comedy-drama spy series ''Kleo''. Her film credits include ', ''Fack ju Göhte'' and ''Combat Girls''. She has also appeared ...

for their performance in ''Kleo''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schaad, Dimitrij 1985 births Living people German male film actors German male television actors 21st-century German male actors