Matthias Schweighöfer (born March 11, 1981 in Anklam, then-East Germany) is a German actor, voice actor, film director, producer and Singer-Songwriter.
He is active in his native country since 1997, and he's been taking roles in English-speaking works since Valkyrie and The Red Baron. He made his directorial debut in 2011 with the romantic comedy What a Man, followed in 2013 by Schlussmacher (and starred in both). He created his own production firm, Pantaleon Films, in 2011. In 2017, he directed, produced and played the lead role in You Are Wanted, Amazon Studios' first non-English-language TV series.
In addition to starring in Zack Snyder's Netflix film Army of the Dead as safecracker Ludwig Dieter, he also directed and starred as the character in Army of Thieves, the prequel film to it about Ludwig's story before the Las Vegas heist.
He also founded a fashion label, German Garment, with TV host Joko Winterscheidt, and made his singer debut with a pop album in 2017, Lachen Weinen Tanzen.
Selected filmography as actor:
- Polizeiruf 110 (2001) as Daniel Cross
- Tatort (2001; 2010) as Balthasar Staupen / Jacky Bräutigam
- The Red Baron (2008) as Manfred von Richthofen
- Valkyrie (2008) as Lieutenant Franz Herber
- Friendship (2010) as Tom Kleeberg
- A Turtle's Tale: Sammy's Adventures (2010) as Sammy (German dub)
- What a Man (2011) as Alexander (directed as well)
- Kokowääh 2 (2013) As Himself
- The Joys of Fatherhood (2014) as Felix Bender (directed as well)
- The Little Prince (2015) as the Fox (German dub)
- Four Against the Bank (2016) as Max
- You Are Wanted (2017-2018) as Lukas Franke
- Kursk (2018) as Pavel Sonin
- Playmobil: The Movie (2019) as Rex Dasher (German dub)
- Resistance (2020) as Klaus Barbie
- Army of the Dead (2021) as Ludwig Dieter
- Army of Thieves (2021, directed as well)
- The Swimmers (2022) as Sven
- Oppenheimer (2023) as Werner Heisenberg
- Heart of Stone (2023) as Jack of Hearts
- Family Switch (2023) as Rolf
- Girl You Know It’s True (2024) as Frank Farian
Tropes & Trivia in his works:
- Author Appeal: He's big about averting/subverting the Germanic Depressives trope with his preferences for comedy and quirky characters, especially with projects that are aimed at international audiences to show, in his words, "the fun side of Germans".
- Directed by Cast Member: Like fellow German actor-director (and frequent co-star of his) Til Schweiger, he tends to star in the films that he directs.
- Irony as She Is Cast: He suffers from aviophobia, the fear of flying on planes. And he played the Red Baron himself.
- Older Than They Look: He's over forty but can easily pass for about ten years younger.
- Playing Against Type: He is famous for his comedy films in Germany, and he's played the sinister figure of Klaus Barbie in 2020's Resistance. He went on record to say he's not fond of such "Period Piece" roles.
- Those Two Actors: He has frequently starred alongside Til Schweiger.
- Typecasting: A number of his characters can be summed up as a team's quirky Plucky Comic Relief who verges on Nervous Wreck.
