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Johannes Kienast was born on 9 February 1986 in Halle (Salle), then in the GDR. From 2008 to 2012 he completed his acting training at the Westfälische Schauspielschule Bochum. During this time he gave guest performances at the Schauspielhaus Bochum and the Schauspiel Essen. He also made his film debut as a student: in the award-winning short film "Ich bin Schauspieler" (2010) he played an actor who auditions for an important film role. In the same year he had a supporting role as a recruit in the Sven Regener adaptation "Neue Vahr Süd" (2010, TV).
After his studies Kienast was a member of the ensemble of the Cottbus State Theatre from the 2012/13 season until the end of the 2016/17 season. There he appeared among others in the role of Christen Kurt in "Nathans Kinder", as Mortimer Brewster in "Arsenic and Old Lace" and in the title role of "Hamlet".
Parallel to his work on stage Kienast took on supporting roles in film and television productions. He played a buddy of the main character (Elyas M'Barek) in the romantic drama "Heiter bis wolkig" (2012) and an anonymous acquaintance of Charlotte Gainsbourg in Lars von Trier's "Nymph()maniac 1" (DK/DE/FR 2013) to name but two. In the soap opera "In aller Freundschaft - Die jungen Ärzte" he was seen in 2016 in a guest role as a patient, in the TV film "Lotte Jäger und das tote Mädchen" (2016) he played a supporting role as a commissioner.
In 2017 Kienast transferred from the Staatstheater Cottbus to the Staatstheater Braunschweig, where he took part in productions of "Die Nashörner", "Die Schneekönigin" and "As You Like It".
In January 2018 Hendrik Hölzemann's "Axel, der Held" ("Axel The Hero") premiered at the Max Ophüls Film Festival. The shooting had already taken place in 2014. Kienast played the leading role of a dreamy and romantic coward who wants to prove himself a hero in order to win the heart of his secret love. The film was released in cinemas in the summer of 2019. Kienast also belonged to the ensemble of the award-winning coming-of-age film "Meine wunderbar seltsame Woche mit Tess" ("My Extraordinary Summer with Tess", NL/DE 2019).