Actor

Samuel Schneider (born April 7, 1995, in Berlin) is a German actor. Samuel Schneider grew up in the Berlin district of Wedding. His German mother was active in the Berlin squatters' scene in 1983, while his father hails from Turkey. His artistic career began at a young age. From 2005 to 2007, he performed at the Berliner Ensemble in William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, directed by Robert Wilson. At the age of ten, he began taking acting lessons at the Special Coaching Actors Studio in Berlin, and starting in 2008, he took on his first film roles. Beginning in 2018, Schneider studied acting for a year and a half at the Berlin University of the Arts (Universität der Künste Berlin). In 2023, he completed his Master’s degree in "Theater and Performance" at the Zurich University of the Arts (Zürcher Hochschule der Künste). As part of his studies, he directed his first stage play, titled Faust3000. Guest engagements led him to various theaters, including the Volksbühne Berlin in 2016, where he performed alongside Kathrin Angerer in I love you, but I’ve chosen Entdramatisierung, directed by René Pollesch. In 2018, he appeared on stage at the Berliner Ensemble in Simon Stone’s Eine Griechische Trilogie (A Greek Trilogy), performing alongside Martin Wuttke. Schneider landed his first leading role in a feature film in 2010 in Boxhagener Platz, based on the novel by Torsten Schulz and directed by Matti Geschonneck. In 2013, he took on a lead role alongside Ulrich Tukur in Exit Marrakech, directed by Caroline Link; for this performance, he received the New Faces Award in 2014 for Best German Newcomer Actor. Further leading roles followed in films such as Agonie by David Clay Diaz, Die Puppenspieler (based on the novel by Tanja Kinkel), Asphaltgorillas by Detlev Buck, and Hello Again – Ein Tag für immer by Maggie Peren. In 2022, Schneider appeared in Doris Dörrie’s Freibad, as well as in the international French series Toutes Ces Choses Qu’on Ne S’est Pas Dites (or All Those Things We Never Said)—based on the novel by Marc Levy—alongside Jean Reno and Alexandra Maria Lara. In the years that followed, he took on lead roles in Sylvie Michel’s More Than Strangers and Kida Khodr Ramadan’s Haltlos. Most recently, he was seen in Karoline Herfurth’s box-office hit Wunderschön. Samuel Schneider lives in Berlin.