Biography:

Stefanie Stappenbeck was born in Potsdam, East Germany, in 1974. At the age of 11, she was discovered by East German television talent scouts and cast for the children’s feature film Der Elterntauschladen. In the role as Annette in Bruno Fürneisen’s well-known TV production Die Weihnachtsgans Auguste, she shared the screen with famous actors, including Käthe Reichel and Dietrich Körner. She then played the lead Ulla, a young and engaged environmental activist, in DEFA director Jörg Foth’s 1990 youth movie Biologie! 

After graduating from high school in 1992, Stappenbeck performed at prestigious Berlin theaters, including the Deutsches Theater, Berliner Ensemble and Maxim Gorki Theater. Deutsches Theater director Thomas Langhoff cast her for his theater production Biberpelz, which was recorded by television in 1993. Stappenbeck applied to study performance at the Schauspielschule “Ernst Busch” Berlin but she was rejected and never received an acting education. 

Stappenbeck, who has played in over one hundred films, is famous for her appearance in popular TV series, including the crime series Ein starkes Team, in which she has played detective chief superintendent Linett Wachow since 2016. She is also part of the Tatort crime series ensemble and has played the role of Isabella Schoppenroth, the former wife of undercover investigator Nick Tschiller (played by Til Schweiger). In the 2012 TV series Auf Herz und Nieren, she played the young doctor Nina Hansen who takes over her uncle’s medical practice. In Heinrich Breloer’s notable mini-series Die Manns – Ein Jahrhundertroman, she played Monika Mann, Thomas Mann’s daughter, alongside Armin Mueller-Stahl, Veronica Ferres, Monica Bleibtreu, Sophie Ros and Katharina Thalbach. 

For her supporting role as the daughter of an alcoholic mother in Margarethe von Trotta’s Dunkle Tage, Stappenbeck received the 2000 Golden Camera and the 1999 Promotional German Television Award. As a cast member in Kindermädchen, she was nominated for the 2012 Bambi. A year later, she was nominated for Best Actress in a TV mini-series for the lead in Im Alleingang – Elemente des Zweifels. In 2015, she was nominated for Best TV Actress Jupiter Price for her performance as a single mother of two children with money problems in Michael Rowitz comedy Mit Burnout durch den Wald. 

Stefanie Stappenbeck, who lives in Berlin, has also worked on radio plays and audiobooks. Beside her very busy shooting schedule, she also tries to return to the theater stage whenever possible. Audiences will have seen her at the Hamburger Kammerspiele and St. Pauli Theater in Hamburg, and in 2011-12 she returned to the Berliner Ensemble to play Polly Peachum in Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera).