Karoline Herfurth

Karoline Herfurth is a German actress and filmmaker. She was born on 22 May 1984 in East Berlin, East Germany, to a psychologist mother and a geriatric nurse practitioner father. Her parents divorced when she was two years old. She grew up in Berlin alongside one brother and five half-siblings, attended a Waldorf school, and later graduated from the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts. In addition to her dramatic training, she learned to play the recorder and studied sociology and political sciences.

Herfurth began her acting career at a young age, securing her first television role at age ten and her feature film debut at fifteen in 2000. During her teenage years, she appeared in several German movies, including Mädchen, Mädchen in 2001 and Big Girls don't cry in 2002. Over time, she landed leading roles in both independent German films and television productions.

Herfurth expanded her profile internationally in 2006 with a role in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, an adaptation of Patrick Süskind's novel Das Parfum, in which she played the Plum Girl. In 2008, she co-starred alongside Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes in the feature film The Reader, which received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.

Herfurth's work in German cinema earned critical recognition. For her performance as Lilli Richter in Caroline Link's film A Year ago in Winter, she received the Bavarian Film Award for best young actress in 2009. She expanded her work behind the camera in 2016 by directing her first feature-length film, titled SMS für Dich.

Outside of feature films and television, Herfurth has participated in commercial brand partnerships. She was featured in advertising campaigns for Jil Sander's Eve fragrance between 2011 and 2012. In 2024, she became a brand ambassador for the cosmetics brand Weleda. In her personal life, she has publicly expressed opposition to the right-wing Pegida movement in Germany.