Christian Ulmen German Actor Known for Men in the City

Early life

Christian Ulmen was born on 22 September 1975 in Neuwied, Germany. He attended the Charlotte-Paulsen-Gymnasium and finished school there in 1995. He later became known in Germany as a television presenter, actor, entertainer, voice actor, narrator, filmmaker and businessman.

Career

Ulmen first reached a wide audience as a television presenter, and one of his early projects was the series Ulmens Auftrag in 2004. His film work began in the early 2000s. He played the title role of Herr Lehmann in Berlin Blues in 2003, took the part of Otto in The Fisherman and His Wife in 2005, and in 2006 appeared as Michael Djerzinski in Atomised, the screen adaptation of a novel, and as Paul in the football comedy FC Venus.

From 2007 to 2008 he starred as Dr. Max Munzl across fourteen episodes of the series Dr. Psycho – Die Bösen, die Bullen, meine Frau und ich. The role brought him a Bavarian TV Award in 2007. In 2008 he played Bruno Karras in the television film Schade um das schöne Geld.

The next two years consolidated his place in popular comedy. In Men in the City (2009) he played Günther Stobanski, and a sequel followed in 2011. He took part in Wedding Fever in Campobello in 2009, and in 2010 played Phil Decker in the action comedy Jerry Cotton, Frieder Schulz in Hochzeitspolka and Lutz Stielike in Vater Morgana. The same year he featured in the series Die Snobs and the film 3faltig. In 2011 he wrote the film Jonas and played the title character, and he appeared as one of the knights in the children's film Vicky and the Treasure of the Gods. In 2012 he was in Don't You Believe It!, in which he played Georg.

From 2013 to 2021 Ulmen played the investigator Kommissar Lessing in the Weimar episodes of the long-running crime series Tatort. In the series he and Nora Tschirner played a pair of detectives who are also a couple, and he appeared in nine episodes in total, the last of them being Der feine Geist in 2021. Alongside Tatort he continued with cinema roles: Viktor in Everything Is Love (2014), Robert Beck in Beck's Last Summer (2015) and Daniel Hagenberger in Macho Man (2015). He also appeared in Ghost Hunters in 2015.

Ulmen has worked behind the camera too. He directed the 2017 production jerks., and he wrote Jonas. His filmography shows regular collaboration with the actors Bastian Pastewka, Palina Rojinski and Moritz Bleibtreu. His listed credits stretch to more than thirty film and television titles. He has also narrated audiobooks, among them a 2010 recording of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for the publisher der Hörverlag and a 2011 recording of Ian McEwan's Psychopolis for Diogenes.

Recognition

The principal award on his record is the Bavarian TV Award, won in 2007 for his performance in Dr. Psycho. His roles in Men in the City, Jerry Cotton and the Tatort series have made him one of the better-known German screen actors of the period.

Personal life

Ulmen has two children.