
Acting
Apr 21, 1991
Hamburg, Germany
Leonie Benesch
Acting
Biography
Leonie Benesch (born April 22, 1991) is a German actress who has played roles in major productions including Babylon Berlin and The Crown, as well as Around the World in 80 Days. She is currently based in London. In 2009, Benesch played the role of Eva in the film The White Ribbon, which won the Golden Palm. Film critics singled out her performance as "a discovery". She received the American "Young Artist Award" for her work, as well as a "New Faces Award". In 2010, she performed in Philip Koch's drama Picco and in Sophie Heldman's film Colors in the Dark (Satte Farben vor Schwarz), where she worked alongside Senta Berger and Bruno Ganz. In 2017, Benesch performed in Babylon Berlin as Greta Overbeck, winning the "German Acting Prize". Benesch also performed in The Crown as the sister of Prince Philip, Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark. In 2020, she was cast in the BBC miniseries Around the World in 80 Days, alongside David Tennant as Phileas Fogg and Ibrahim Koma as Passepartout. Benesch grew up in Tübingen, and attended the Freie Waldorfschule. She also attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. She is of French and Transylvanian descent.
Feature Films (21)

An aged tailor recalls his life as the schoolteacher of a small village in Northern Germany that was struck by a series of strange events in the year leading up to WWI.
The White Ribbon

Kevin is new in youth prison. Due to over-occupancy he has to share a cell with Tommy, Andy and Marc. A partnership of convenience in a system where only the strong prevail and which is dominated by violence and latent aggression. Oppression and beatings are a daily occurence. It is hard for Kevin to establish himself. Especially Marc and Andy are after him. He's afraid of not sticking it out. Only Tommy gives him an amicable advice: In this system, you're either a victim or a culprit. If he doesn't want to be a loser anymore, he has to start fighting... A piece of advice that will trigger most dire consequences
Picco

The last years of Heinrich George's life are reconstructed with documentary footage and play scenes. His son Götz, named after Heinrich's favorite role of the peasant war hero from Goethe's play "Götz von Berlichingen", plays scenes from his father's life and allows his enormous creative power to shine through. Nothing is left out, nothing glossed over in this story of a man with many facets. Götz George, one of Germany's best-known actors, is at the center of this homage, which is also a reappraisal of the contradictions in his father's life. As the only follower from the acting profession, Heinrich George had to pay with his life. He was not officially rehabilitated until 1998.
George

A young pregnant woman who lives in Jerusalem believes she is going to bring the son of God into the world. Her older sister tries to convince her to return with her to Germany. Then the young woman disappears.
Das Jerusalem-Syndrom

A corpse is washed up on the beach of the North Sea. The deceased is Alexander, husband of the beautiful Bettina. They have been coming to the island for a long time and possess a cottage there. At first no one doubts that Alexander died of an accident, but the young policewoman Maike, who has known the family since her childhood, thinks that Alexander should have been familiar with the mudflat. Did he kill himself?
Die Flut ist pünktlich

When one of her students is suspected of theft, teacher Carla Nowak decides to get to the bottom of the matter. Caught between her ideals and the school system, the consequences of her actions threaten to break her.
The Teachers' Lounge

The story opens with Bica, a solvent abusing waif, trying in vain to evade the Romanian police with her infant brother in tow. Separated from her sibling she is taken to Germany, concealed in the trunk of a car. There she is trained as a thief, picking the pockets of strangers to fill those of her patron. One of her victims is the separated father of Milka, a brat with razor sharp tongue. From this unlikely start a friendship forms and Bica gets a glimpse into a world of material security, if not emotional closeness...
Beautiful Bitch

During the 1972 Munich Olympics, an American sports broadcasting crew finds itself thrust into covering the hostage crisis involving Israeli athletes.
September 5

"VIKING WOMEN" gives completely new insights into a fascinating culture, about which it seemed everything was already known. Exclusive interviews with experts from around the globe draw an authentic picture of the Viking world according to the latest scientific findings. High quality recreations with an international top-class cast will lead us to the early medieval world of the Vikings and revive this fascinating, long-lost era. Based on characters of the Nordic sagas, the mini-series displays the life stories of two Viking women: those of Sigrun and Jova.
Viking Women

Micha unwittingly becomes a German hero when a journalist portrays him as the mastermind behind the mass exodus from East Germany.
Berlin Hero

Esra leads two parallel lives. In her daily life the vivacious and spirited Esra adores her family but feels caged in her relationships. In her dream life, she yearns to discover the identity of the man who visits her dreams. While in waking life she struggles in vain, in her dream life she evolves in secret. But what if waking and dreaming were never separate and the real secret is shored by all?
8 Seconds

Anita and Fred have been a couple for 50 years, and happily married for nearly as long. They have two grown children, and their grandchildren are finishing school. Both can look back at a fulfilling past, but their lives are still rich and vibrant. The fact that Fred is terribly ill has been hidden from the family. For the first time in all these years, Fred takes some liberties, which his wife interprets as an affront. Never before has she felt so abandoned. Although she starts to question her relationship, a love like theirs cannot end so easily. Indeed it should never end.
Colors in the Dark
Television & Series (19)

The social and class divisions in early 20th century England through the intersection of three families - the wealthy Wilcoxes, the gentle and idealistic Schlegels and the lower-middle class Basts.
Howards End

Der Kriminalist is a German television series produced by Monaco Film Hamburg, subsidiary of Odeon Film. Directors during the first season were Sherry Hormann and Torsten C. Fischer, during the second: Thomas Jahn, Jobst Oetzmann and Torsten C. Fischer.
Der Kriminalist

Morden im Norden is a German Police that has been broadcast by Das Erste. The show is set in Lübeck, Germany Morden im Norden is part of a series of commonly branded shows with similar themes called "Heiter bis tödlich".
Murder in the North

Tatort is a long-running German/Austrian/Swiss crime television series set in various parts of these countries. The show is broadcast on the channels of ARD in Germany, ORF in Austria and SF1 in Switzerland.
Scene of the Crime

Beneath the decadence of 1929 Berlin, lies an underworld city of sin. Police investigator Gereon Rath has been transferred from Cologne to the epicenter of political and social changes in the Golden Twenties.







