Peter Benedict (born Christian Riss;
13 July 1963) is an
Austrian actor, director and writer.
Early life
Peter Benedict was born Christian Riss in
Chur
''
Chur (locally) or ; ; ; ; ; ; or ; , and . is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, town of the Switzerland, Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of the Grisons and lies in the Alpine Rhine, Grisonian Rhine Valley, where ...
,
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
. He is the only son of actors
Walter Riss and
Christa Rossenbach. He grew up 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 ...
,
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
and
Salzburg
Salzburg is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...
. Benedict studied drama and film directing at
Mozarteum University Salzburg and at
Konrad Wolf Film University of Babelsberg.
Career
Benedict began working in film and television productions under his birth name in the late 1980s. He wrote and directed the 1999 film ''Ende des Frühlings''.
In 2000, he started his film career as an actor. His first role was in
Dominik Graf
Dominik Graf (born 6 September 1952) is a German film director. He studied film direction at University of Television and Film Munich, from where he graduated in 1975. While he has directed several theatrically released feature films since the 198 ...
's drama ''
A Map of the Heart''. Since then, Benedict has appeared in numerous films and television shows, including ''
Fay Grim'' (2006), ''
Yella'' (2007), ''
Lusitania: Murder on the Atlantic'' (2007), ''
Unschuldig'' (2008), ''
Barbara'' (2012), ''
The Team'' (2015), and ''
The Young Karl Marx'' (2017).
From 2005 to 2016, he made regular appearances in the long-running crime drama ''
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 ...
''. He was part of the main cast of the crime series ''Kommissarin Heller'' (2014–2019), where he portrayed the role of Burkhard Hinnrichs. From 2017 to 2020, Benedict appeared 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 ...
science fiction series ''
Dark
Darkness is the condition resulting from a lack of illumination, or an absence of visible light.
Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low luminance because the hue-sensitive photoreceptor cells on the retina are ...
'' as Aleksander Tiedemann.
He played one of the lead roles, Robert von Bergen, in the 2018–2019 dramedy series ''Jenny – echt gerecht''.
Personal life
Benedict is married and lives in Berlin and
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
.
Filmography
Film
Television
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benedict, Peter
1963 births
Living people
People from Chur
20th-century Austrian male actors
21st-century Austrian male actors
Austrian male film actors
Austrian male television actors
Austrian film directors
Austrian screenwriters
German-language film directors
Mozarteum University Salzburg alumni
Swiss people of Austrian descent
Swiss people of German descent
Male actors from Salzburg