Kostja Ullmann

Kostja Ullmann is a German actor born on 30 May 1984. He is best known for his leading role in the award-winning coming-of-age drama Sommersturm (Summer Storm), which earned widespread praise across Europe.

Ullmann was born in Hamburg to a German father and an Indian mother. He began acting on stage at eleven years old, performing at Hamburg's Ernst Deutsch Theater and Winterhuder Fährhaus. He made his television debut in 1998 with a minor role in the crime series Alphateam.

Over the following years, Ullmann appeared in minor roles across several TV series, including Stahlnetz, Großstadtrevier, and Leipzig Homicide. He also appeared in television movies, such as the 2001 drama Albtraum einer Ehe alongside August Zirner. Between 1999 and 2000, he was a cast member of the comedy series Zwei Männer am Herd alongside Wolfgang Fierek and Florian Fitz.

In 2004, Ullmann made his feature film debut starring in Marco Kreuzpaintner's award-winning movie Sommersturm. He subsequently starred in the romantic television drama Heimliche Liebe, playing a schoolboy involved with an older woman. His performance in the project earned him the Günther-Strack-Fernsehpreis for Best Actor in 2006.

In 2006, Ullmann starred in his second feature film, Hounded, directed by Angelina Maccarone. In the film, he portrayed a young delinquent involved with a probation officer more than 30 years his senior. The film was awarded a Golden Leopard at the 2006 Locarno International Film Festival. That same year, he appeared as Hermann Lake in the German-Japanese collaboration Baruto no Gakuen (Ode an die Freude).

Ullmann took on the lead role of Luca Behrendt in the 2008 movie Die Zeit, die man Leben nennt. Additionally, his work includes voicing the character Wirt for the German dub of Over the Garden Wall.