Elke Winkens, née Fischer (born 25 March 1970) is an Austrian-German actress. She grew up in Germany in the district Ratheim in

Hückelhoven Hückelhoven (; ) is a town in the district of Heinsberg, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated on the river Rur, approx. 10 km east of Heinsberg, 20 km south-west of Mönchengladbach and approximately 15 km from the bo ...

. Because of her father's work the family moved to The Netherlands and Belgium; for some time she also resided in Africa. At the age of six she took

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

classes and at the age of nine she started performing on stage. Afterwards she performed in many dance and theater acts. From 1978 to 1986 she was a professional gymnast and won several titles in floor exercise. At the age of eighteen she got a scholarship at the

London Studio Centre London Studio Centre, in North Finchley, London, is a British dance and theatre school providing courses in classical ballet, contemporary dance, jazz dance, and musical theatre. It is accredited by the CDMT, Council for Dance, Drama and Musical ...

in London, where she was stationed between 1989 and 1991. Then she moved to

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 participated in the Musical School at the Theater Vienna where she studied song, dance and acting. Later she joined the

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, casino, hotel, restaurant, or nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or drinking, ...

performance group Die Hektiker which made her known. She got her first TV acting job in the series Cell-O-Fun which was broadcast between 1996 and 1997, and then the series called One in 1998. In 2002, she acted in the crime series

Inspector Rex ''Inspector Rex'' (German: ''Kommissar Rex''; Italian: ''Il commissario Rex'') is an Austrian-Italian police procedural television series created by Peter Hajek and Peter Moser. Originally an Austrian series aired from 1994 to 2004 on ORF 1, in ...

where she played the character Niki Herzog. In 2003, Winkens posed for the German edition of ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' (stylized in all caps) is an American men's Lifestyle journalism, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, available both online and in print. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, funded in part by a $ ...

'' magazine and in 2008, she participated in the celebrity dancing show ''

Dancing with the Stars ''Strictly Come Dancing (widely known as Dancing with the Stars)'' is an international television franchise based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing,'' itself a successor to the show ''Come Dancing'' (1950–1998) ...

'' which was broadcast on ORF. She was voted off just one week before the final. In 2025, she acted in an Austrian film '' How to Be Normal and the Oddness of the Other World'', which was selected in Perspectives at the

75th Berlin International Film Festival The 75th annual Berlin International Film Festival, usually called the Berlinale, took place between 13 and 23 February 2025 in Berlin, Germany. American filmmaker Todd Haynes was named the Jury President for the main competition. It marked the f ...

and will be screened in February 2025.

References

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Winkens, Elke Living people 1970 births Austrian actresses German actresses German television personalities Austrian women comedians German women comedians People from Düren (district) Actresses from North Rhine-Westphalia Comedians from North Rhine-Westphalia People from Heinsberg (district)