Clemens Schick

Biography

Clemens Schick was born on February 15th 1972 in Tübingen. He started studying art in Ulm, and then stayed in a French monastery for a few months before enrolling at the "Berliner Schule für Schauspiel", where he took acting classes from 1993 to 1996. After graduation, he played at several renowned theatres in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. From 2001 to 2006, he was an ensemble member of the Schauspiel Hannover, and in 2007, he played "Death" in a staging of Hugo von Hofmannsthals "Jedermann" at the Salzburger Festspiele.

A guest role in the TV series "Balko" marked his screen debut in 1998. The following years, Schick appeared in TV and film productions alike, including supporting roles in "Enemy at the Gates" (2001) and the James Bond adventure "Casino Royale" (2006). Schick also played the lead in "Aufrecht stehen", which screened at the 2007 Berlinale, and was cast in Stefan Krohmer's TV drama "Mitte 30". Alongside Alexandra Neldel and Erhan Emre, he was one of the stars of the TV crime series "Unschuldig". In 2010, he played a young man searching for his disappeared dream woman in the melancholic comedy "Cindy liebt mich nicht".

Following his leading turn as a stressed-out truck driver who meets a young prostitute and ends up fleeing with her from her violent pimps in Philipp Leinemann's "Transit" (2010), Schick appeared in a string of made-for-TV films, including in Lars Becker's "Reise in den Tod" (2012), Florian Baxmeyer's "Die Jagd nach dem Bernsteinzimmer" (2012) and Dror Zahavi's "Das Jerusalem-Syndrom" (2013).

After supporting roles in "Du hast es versprochen" ("Forgotten", 2012), "Das Kind" (DE/US 2012), "Ein Haus in Berlin" ("A House in Berlin", DE/GB 2014) and the acclaimed mountain western "Das finstere Tal" ("The Dark Valley", AT/DE 2014), Schick had leading parts in the romantic drama "Praia do Futuro" (BR/DE 2012-2014) and the action film "Point Break" (US/DE 2015). Following his turns as an unconventional psychiatrist in the coming-of-age drama "Vier Könige" ("Four Kings", 2015) and as a software engineer who falls in love with a young artist (played by Nicolette Krebitz) in the TV romance "Treffen sich zwei" (2016), Clemens Schick starred in the dystopic science-fiction film "Stille Reserven" ("Hidden Reserves", AT/DE/CH 2016). Set in Vienna in the near future, the award-winning film sees Schick playing a salesman working for an all-controlling insurance company who starts to question the system when he falls in love with an underground activist.

In addition, Schick was part of the ensemble of the ten-part Finnish-German crime series "Arctic Circle - Der unsichtbare Tod" (2018 in Finland, 2020 in Germany on ZDF) for nine episodes, played a war-weary submarine commander in the second season of the German streaming series "Das Boot" ("The Boat", 2020) and was seen in four episodes of the British series "Stuck" in 2022, as well as in three episodes of the US series "Andor", a prequel to Star Wars' "Rogue One". He also has been investigating since 2017 as Xavi Bonet together with fellow actress Anne Schäfer in the ARD crime series "Der Barcelona-Krimi" and continues to appear in it at irregular intervals.

For his role as the authoritarian and sexually abusive leader of an alternative rural commune for children and young people in the feature film "Servus Papa, See You in Hell" ("So Long, Daddy, See You in Hell"), which is based on true events and premiered at the 2022 Munich Film Festival, Schick received a nomination for the 2023 German Film Award in the Best Male Supporting Role category.

In addition to his work in front of the camera, Clemens Schick reads audio books, including "Stimmen", a collection of texts from the estate of Wolfgang Herrndorf. In his private life, he is involved in various social causes, including Human Rights Watch (HRW) and as an ambassador for the Hugo Tempelman Foundation, which supports the construction of hospitals, facilities for the disabled, day-care centers and the expansion of water supplies in South Africa.