Bastian Trost

Biography

Bastian Trost was born March 29, 1974, in Düsseldorf, and attended Westfälische Schauspielschule in Bochum. He already performed in productions of "Medea" and "King Lear" at Düsseldorf’s Schauspielhaus at the age of 16. Trost subsequently performed in the 1991 production of "Romeo and Juliet" at Cologne’s Kolb-Halle, in the 1998 production of "Der gute Dieb" at Deutsches Theater Baracke, and in the 2001 production of "The Beach" at Volksbühne Berlin.

Since 2002, Trost is a member of the artist group "Gob Squad" founded in 1994 that resides in Nottingham and in Berlin and focuses on the fusion of theatre performances, new media, and technology including video performances, installations, film, and live events. Within the scope of the group’s work, Trost returned to Volksbühne Berlin to perform in the 2007 productions of "Gob Squad’s Kitchen (You’ve Never Had It So Good)" and of "Me the Monster".

Trost also appeared on TV, for instance, in Jo Baier’s films "Der Laden" ("The Store", 1997) and as lieutenant Haeften in "Die Stunde der Offiziere", a docu-drama about the failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944. Furthermore, he starred in the "Tatort" episodes "Blaues Blut" (1999) and "Der dunkle Fleck" (2002), in "Commissario Brunetti – Venezianische Scharade", and in the "Bella Block" episode "Blackout" (2006).

Trost made his debut on the movie screen in 1994 in the historical drama "Maries Lied" ("Marie’s Song"). He subsequently starred in minor and medium-scaled roles in several films, including Max Färberböck’s film "Aimee & Jaguar" (1998), Fatih Akin’s film "Solino" (2002), Christopher Roth’s film "Baader" (2002), and Rudolf Thome’s film "Frau fährt, Mann schläft" ("Woman Driving, Man Sleeping", 2004). Trost played his first leading role on the movie screen in Benjamin Heisenberg’s film "Schläfer" ("Sleeper") as Johannes who is torn between the loyalty to his friend and colleague, a suspected terrorist, and his career as a virologist that he might give a boost by betraying his friendship. In the Academy Award-winning film "Das Leben der Anderen" ("The Life of Others", 2006), Trost was seen in a small role as a Stasi prisoner.

After further supporting roles, such as in Volker Sattel's "After Effect" (2007), Bastian Trost once again played a leading cinema role in Almut Getto's award-winning love story "Ganz nah bei Dir" ("Close to You", 2009) alongside Katharina Schüttler. He was also seen in the "Tatort" episode "Architektur eines Todes" (2009) and in Tatjana Turanskyj's directorial debut "Eine flexible Frau" ("The Drifter", 2010), which premiered in the Forum of the 2010 Berlinale.

In Lola Randl's drama "Die Erfindung der Liebe" ("The Invention of Love", 2011), he played the lead role of the female protagonist's boyfriend, who instigates him to marry a terminally ill millionaire (Sunnyi Melles) for the sake of her inheritance. He worked with Randl again in 2016 in "Fühlen Sie sich manchmal ausgebrannt und leer?" ("Do You Sometimes Feel Burned Out and Empty"), which premiered at the Munich Film Festival in 2018.

Also in 2016, filming took place on Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's artist biopic "Werk ohne Autor" ("Never Look Away"), which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at both the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes in 2019 and in which Bastian Trost played a family doctor in a supporting role.

Eibe Maleen Krebs' drama "Draußen in meinem Kopf" premiered at the Max-Ophüls-Preis film festival in 2018, starring Samuel Koch in the lead role and Trost as a pastor. In 2017, director Max Linz cast him as a doctoral student in "Weitermachen Sanssouci" ("Music and Apocalypse"), a satire about the transformation of university life into a turbo-capitalist research machine, which premiered in the Berlinale Forum and was released in cinemas in October 2019.

Furthermore, Trost also lends his voice to audio books, for instance for the WDR production "Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray" ("The Picture of Dorian Gray") or the MDR production "Wilhelm Meister".

In February 2021, Trost was among the 185 lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, non-binary, and transgender signatories of the #actout manifesto, making them part of the mass coming-out on the front page of Süddeutsche Zeitung's magazine. Initiated by Karin Hanczewski, Godehard Giese, and Eva Meckbach, the initiative took a stand against discrimination and called for more visibility and diversity in the theater, film, and television industries.

In 2021, Trost was also invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen as a member of the Gob Squad for the play "Show Me A Good Time". In 2023, he played a small role as a wounded world war veteran in the "Tatort" episode "1000 Jahre sind kein Tag".