Liv Lisa Fries

Liv Lisa Fries is a German actress who has achieved international recognition for her screen performances. She is best known for starring as Charlotte Ritter in the German television series Babylon Berlin, which premiered in 2017. In addition to her extensive television work, Fries has appeared in numerous feature films, including Hinterland and From Hilde, With Love.

Fries was born on 31 October 1990 at the Charité hospital in Berlin, Germany, and was raised in the Berlin borough of Pankow. During her youth, she spent time as an exchange student in Beijing. She is multilingual, speaking her native German as well as English, French, and Mandarin. After receiving her Abitur in 2010, she pursued advanced classes in philosophy and German, though she eventually discontinued her studies to focus on her acting career.

At age 14, Fries decided to pursue acting after being impressed by Natalie Portman's performance in Léon: The Professional. She made her acting debut in 2005. Her initial film role in Atomised was cut from the final film, but she subsequently played the female lead in a 2006 episode of Schimanski. Over the following years, she appeared in various German feature films and television projects, including The Wave, Stronger Than Blood, Romeos, Add a Friend, Polizeiruf 110, and the television film She Deserved It, in which she played an aggressive teenager named Linda.

Fries achieved major critical acclaim for her performance as Lea, a young woman living with cystic fibrosis, in the 2013 German tragicomedy Zurich. To prepare for the role, she met with a patient suffering from the disease and practiced running up stairs while breathing through a straw. Her portrayal in Zurich earned her several accolades, including the Bavarian Film Prize, the Max Ophüls Prize, the German Director's Prize, and a German Film Critics Award. She was also recognized with a Goldene Kamera Award for Best Young Actress for She Deserved It.

In 2016, Fries was cast in her most prominent role to date as Charlotte Ritter in Babylon Berlin. Portraying a resourceful police stenographer from a poor background who investigates crimes in Weimar Republic-era Berlin, her performance gained widespread popularity in Germany and internationally. Between filming seasons, she played a recurring role in the American television series Counterpart and co-starred in the film Prélude. Her other film credits include Boy 7, Heil, Lou Andreas-Salomé, Rocket Perelman, Confessions of Felix Krull, Munich – The Edge of War, Zwischen uns, and Freud's Last Session.

In 2018, Fries received a Grimme-Preis alongside the primary cast and production team of Babylon Berlin. The series continued through multiple seasons, with the fifth and final season commencing filming in the winter of 2024 and wrapping in December 2025. Outside of her acting work, Fries resided in a village in Brandenburg as of 2020, and her favorite hobby is horse riding.