Nina Hoss

Nina Hoss is a German stage, film, and television actress. She is best known for her collaborations with director Christian Petzold in films such as Barbara and Phoenix. Her screen career encompasses feature films including The White Masai, Pelican Blood, Tár, and Hedda, alongside roles in television series such as Homeland, The Defeated, and Jack Ryan.

Born on July 7, 1975, in Stuttgart, West Germany, Hoss grew up in an artistic and political environment. Her father, Willi Hoss, was a trade unionist, politician, Green Party co-founder, and member of the Bundestag, while her mother, Heidemarie Rohweder, was a theatre actress and director. Hoss acted in radio plays at age seven and took to the stage at age fourteen. In 1997, she graduated from the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin, studying alongside actors such as Lars Eidinger and Fritzi Haberlandt.

Hoss gained early recognition playing the title role in the 1996 period drama A Girl Called Rosemary. Named a Shooting Star at the Berlinale in 2000, she developed a prominent partnership with Christian Petzold. She won an Adolf Grimme Award for Something to Remind Me in 2003 and an Adolf Grimme Award in Gold for Wolfsburg in 2005. Her lead performance in Yella earned her the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2007 and a German Film Award in 2008. She later starred in Petzold's Barbara, which premiered in Berlin in 2011 and screened in Toronto in 2012.

Hoss expanded into international television playing a German BND agent in Homeland from 2014 to 2017, followed by roles in the miniseries The Defeated and Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan. Her prominent film roles include playing violinist and concertmaster Sharon Goodnow in Tár and Eileen Lovborg in Hedda. Outside acting, she performed on the 2014 track "Europa geht durch mich" with the Manic Street Preachers and featured on Public Service Broadcasting's 2021 album Bright Magic.

On stage, Hoss was an ensemble member at Berlin's Deutsches Theater from 1998 to 2013, appearing in plays such as Medea and Minna von Barnhelm. She joined the Schaubühne ensemble in 2013, starring in Thomas Ostermeier productions including Little Foxes, Bella Figura, and Returning to Reims.

Hoss serves as a goodwill ambassador in Pará, Brazil, combating rainforest destruction, and supports campaigns against poverty and female genital mutilation. She represented Alliance 90/The Greens at Germany's Federal Convention in 2004 and 2010. She was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2013, made a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2015, and joined the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2019.