Liv Lisa Fries (born 31 October 1990 in

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 ...

) is a German actress who has appeared in several films and who gained an international following as the female lead Charlotte Ritter in the German TV series ''

Babylon Berlin ''Babylon Berlin'' is a German neo-noir television series. Created, written, and directed by Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries, and Hendrik Handloegten, it is loosely based on novels by Volker Kutscher. The series premiered on 13 October 2017 o ...

'', which first premiered in 2017.

Early life and education

Liv Lisa Fries was born on 31 October 1990 at the

Charité The Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Charité – Berlin University of Medicine; ) is Europe's List of hospitals by capacity, largest university hospital, affiliated with Humboldt University of Berlin, Humboldt University and the Free ...

hospital in Berlin. She was raised in the Berlin borough of

Pankow Pankow () is the second largest and most populous Boroughs and quarters of Berlin, borough of the German capital Berlin. In Berlin's 2001 administrative reform, it was merged with the former boroughs of Prenzlauer Berg and Weissensee (Berlin), W ...

. As an exchange student, Fries studied in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. In addition to native German, she speaks English, French and Mandarin. After receiving her

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

in 2010, Fries took advanced classes in philosophy and German, but dropped out as her career as an actress progressed.

Career

Fries wanted to become an actress when she was 14 years old after watching '' Léon: The Professional,'' because she was impressed by

Natalie Portman Natalie Hershlag{{efn, Some Hebrew sources claim that her birth name was "Neta-Lee Hershleg" ({{langx, he, נטע-לי הרשלג) and later, her first name was Americanized to "Natalie". {{Cite news , last=Shamir , first=Oron , date=August ...

's performance. After making her debut in 2005, Fries has gone on to appear in almost 40 acting roles, the majority of which have come in German films and TV series such as ''

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

'', ''

Add a Friend Addition (usually signified by the plus symbol, +) is one of the four basic operations of arithmetic, the other three being subtraction, multiplication, and division. The addition of two whole numbers results in the total or '' sum'' of th ...

'', and '' The Wave''. Her first film role was in ''

Atomised ''Atomised'', also known as ''The Elementary Particles'' (), is a novel by the French author Michel Houellebecq, published in France in 1998. It tells the story of two half-brothers, Michel and Bruno, and their mental struggles against their ...

'' (2005) (German: ''Elementarteilchen''); however, her role was cut from the film. She then appeared in 2006 in an episode of ''

Schimanski Horst Schimanski is a fictional homicide detective with a leading role in the German crime television series ''Tatort'', as well as the spin-off ''Schimanski''. Portrayed by Götz George, the character made his debut in the 1981 episode and ap ...

'', in which she played the female lead role. Fries performed in the German made-for-television film ' (2010) as an aggressive, frustrated teenager named Linda who tortures one of her peers. Fries said that during filming, she started feeling lonely and isolated, just like her character. In 2013, she starred in the German tragicomedy ''

''(original title ). She received critical acclaim for her performance as Lea, a young woman with

cystic fibrosis Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disorder inherited in an autosomal recessive manner that impairs the normal clearance of Sputum, mucus from the lungs, which facilitates the colonization and infection of the lungs by bacteria, notably ''Staphy ...

. According to Fries, she prepared for the role by meeting with a patient with the disease, in addition to running up stairs while breathing through a straw. For her role, she was awarded the Bavarian Film Prize in 2013, the Max Ophüls Prize, a German Film Critics Award, and the German Director's Prize. Liv Lisa Fries

Fries received her most prominent role to date when she was cast in 2016 as Charlotte Ritter in the German television show ''

,'' in which she stars as a police stenographer from a poor background who uses her resourcefulness and connections to investigate a series of crimes in

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...

-era Berlin. The first two seasons of the show were filmed over eight months beginning in May 2016 and released consecutively from October–December 2017. ''Babylon Berlin'' has been very popular in Germany as well as with international audiences, and has elevated Fries to international prominence; Fries is considered one of Germany's upcoming stars and has been featured in many magazines. For her portrayal, Fries shared an

Adolf Grimme Award The Grimme-Preis (Grimme Award), formerly known as the Adolf-Grimme-Preis, is one of the most prestigious German television awards. It is named after the first general director of Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk, Adolf Grimme. The Grimme Institute ...

with the ''Babylon Berlin'' team. The show went on a year-long production hiatus during which Fries filmed two projects; she played a recurring role in both seasons of the 2017 American TV series '' Counterpart,'' and also co-starred in the film ''Prélude'' with Louis Hofmann. In late 2018, Fries began the six-month shoot for the third season of ''Babylon Berlin'' which premiered in Germany in January 2020 and arrived on Sky Atlantic in March 2020. In June 2020, production on a fourth season was underway and premiered in 2022.

Personal life

As of 2020, Fries lives in a village in

Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

. Her favourite hobby is horse riding.

Selected filmography

Film

* '' The Wave'' (2008) * ' (2010) * '' Romeos'' (2011) * ''

'' (2013) * ''The Dam'' (2013) * ' (2014) * '' Boy 7'' (2015) * ' (2015) * ' (2016). This German-language movie is about

Lou Andreas-Salomé Lou Andreas-Salomé (born either Louise von Salomé or Luíza Gustavovna Salomé or Lioulia von Salomé, ; 12 February 1861 – 5 February 1937) was a Russian-born psychoanalyst and a well-traveled author, narrator, and essayist from a French Hu ...

. * '' Rocket Perelman'' ''(Rakete Perelman)'' (2017) * ''Prélude'' (2019) * ''

Hinterland Hinterland is a German word meaning the 'land behind' a city, a port, or similar. Its use in English was first documented by the geographer George Chisholm in his ''Handbook of Commercial Geography'' (1888). Originally the term was associated wi ...

'' (2021) * ''

Confessions of Felix Krull ''Confessions of Felix Krull'' () is an unfinished 1954 novel by the Germany, German author Thomas Mann. Synopsis The novel is narrated by the protagonist, an impostor and adventurer named Felix Krull, the son of a ruined Rhineland winemaker. F ...

'' (2021) * '' Munich – The Edge of War'' (2021) * ''Zwischen uns'' (2021) * ''

Freud's Last Session ''Freud's Last Session'' is a 2023 drama film starring Anthony Hopkins, Matthew Goode, Liv Lisa Fries, Jodi Balfour, Jeremy Northam, and Orla Brady. It is based on the stage play of the same name by Mark St. Germain, which itself is based upon ...

'' (2023) * '' From Hilde, With Love'' (2024)

Television

* ' (2010) (TV film) * ''

Polizeiruf 110 ''Polizeiruf 110'' ("Police call 110") is a long-running German-language detective television series. The name refers to the emergency telephone number of the ''Volkspolizei''. The first episode was broadcast 27 June 1971 in the German Democratic ...

'' (2012) (TV episode) * '' Frauen die Geschichte machten – Sophie Scholl'' (2013) (TV docudrama) * ''

Tatort ("Crime Scene") is a German-language police procedural television series that has been running continuously since 1970 with 30 feature-length episodes per year, making it the longest-running German TV drama. Developed by the German public-se ...

'' (2014) (TV episode) * ''

NSU German History X ''NSU German History X'' is the American name for the 2016 German TV miniseries ''Mitten in Deutschland: NSU''. Synopsis The three-part series dramatizes the true events and characters of the National Socialist Underground, a neo-Nazi German t ...

'' (2016) (TV mini-series) * ''

'' (2017-present) (TV series) * '' Counterpart'' (2017-19) (TV series) * ''

Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of real ...

'' (2024)

Awards

* 2012: Best Young Actress for ''She Deserved It'' (

Goldene Kamera The Goldene Kamera ("Golden Camera") is an annual German film and television award, awarded by the Funke Mediengruppe. The award show was usually held in early February in Hamburg, but also took place in Berlin on occasion. It has been paused ...

Awards) * 2014: Best Young Actress for ''Zurich'' (

Bavarian Film Awards The Bavarian Film Awards () are film awards given to German films in the state of Bavaria, awarded by the state government. Background and description The Bavarian Film Awards have been awarded annually since 1979 by the state government of Bav ...

) * 2014: Best Young Actress for Zurich (Max-Ophüls-Preis) * 2014: Best Actress for Zurich (Deutscher Regiepreis Metropolis) * 2015: Best Actress for Zurich (

Preis der deutschen Filmkritik Preis is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Alfred Preis (1911–1993), Austrian architect * Ellen Preis (Ellen Müller-Preis) (1912–2007), German-born Austrian Olympic champion foil fencer * Mary Louise Preis (born 1941) ...

) * 2018:

Grimme-Preis The Grimme-Preis (Grimme Award), formerly known as the Adolf-Grimme-Preis, is one of the most prestigious German television awards. It is named after the first general director of Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk, Adolf Grimme. The Grimme Institute ...

for ''Babylon Berlin'' (note: everyone with a major role in the production of the series won the award, including all three lead actors)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fries, Liv Lisa 21st-century German actresses Actresses from Berlin 1990 births German television actresses German film actresses Living people German expatriates in China People from Pankow Recipients of the Order of Merit of Berlin