BIROL ÜNEL

Birol Ünel was born in 1961 in Silifke, Turkey. After attending actor’s training at Schauspielschule Hannover Ünel started to perform on stage. He played Caligula in the eponymous play which he also directed at the Tacheles in Berlin and was Siegfried in Castorf’s 1994 production of Die Nibelungen – Born Bad at Berlin’s Volksbühne.

In 1987 Ünel made his movie debut in The Passenger - Welcome to Germany which was followed by several minor parts mainly in the role of shady characters. Ünel finally made his name with his performance in Dealer (1998). He played in Frankfurter Kreuz directed by Romuald Karmarkar (1998) and starred in Fatih Akin’s road movie In July in 1999. In 2004 Birol Ünel made his breakthrough performance as an alcoholic in Head-On (Gegen die Wand) for which he was honoured with the German film prize as best actor. He starred in Annaud’s World War II drama Enemy at the Gates and in Turkish films such as Hirsiz var (2005) as well as in international productions like Aaron Alred’s Not a Lovestory (2005). In Vadim Glowna’s The House of the sleeping Beauties (2006) an adaptation of Yasunari Kawabata’s novel of the same name Birol Ünel appears in the role of Mr. Gold.

Birol Ünel played in many German TV films such as: Schimanski: Geschwister, Tatort: Engelchen flieg’!, Landgang für Ringo (1998); Tatort: Die Beute (1999); Tatort: Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht (2000); Der gestohlene Mond, Tatort: Schattenlos (2002).