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Jonathan Berlin was born in 1994 in Ulm, the son of a pastor's family. He first appeared on stage as a teenager in the Young Ensemble of the Theater Ulm, of which he was a member from 2007 to 2012 and where he played Puck in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (2010), among other roles. Berlin also had his first TV roles as a high school student, including an episode of the youth series "Krimi.de" (2010).
From September 2012 to November 2015, Berlin completed his acting training at the Otto Falckenberg School in Munich. During this time, he appeared on stage at the Munich Kammerspiele, among other venues, for example in the leading role of Ernö in "Rebels" in 2015. In 2015, Berlin received the Ensemble Award for his performance in "Glow! Box BRD" at the Theatertreffen deutschsprachiger Schauspielstudierender (Theater meeting of German-speaking acting students) in Bochum. After graduating, he appeared in the play "Vorsprechen" in the 2015/16 season.
Berlin also made his big screen debut as a student: In the award-winning euthanasia drama "Und morgen Mittag bin ich tot" ("Zurich", 2012), he had a smaller role as the brother of the terminally ill main character who died of cystic fibrosis. From 2014, Berlin regularly appeared in television productions. In the three-parter "Tannbach - Schicksal eines Dorfes" ("Line of Separation", 2015), he portrayed a Nazi border policeman loyal to the line who has a secret homosexual relationship. Berlin also played this role in the sequel, which aired in 2018. The two-parter "Die Himmelsleiter - Sehnsucht nach Morgen" (2015) featured him as the son of the Cologne rubble woman (Christiane Paul) at the center of the story. He also played a title role in the TV fairy tale film "Prinz Himmelblau und Fee Lupine" (2016). He took on episode guest roles in series as "Der Bergdoktor" (2016), "SOKO München" (2016) and "Helen Dorn" (2017).
For his lead role in the coming-of-age drama "Die Freibadclique" ("Summer of '44", 2017, TV), set during the Nazi era, Berlin was nominated for the German Television Award and received the German Acting Award and the New Faces Award. On the big screen, Berlin was seen in "Schneeblind" ("Snowblind", 2017), as a blind 16-year-old who tries to escape from the Allies to Switzerland with his father, a former SS officer; as a member of the central clique in the darkly comic friendship story "Feierabendbier" ("After-work Beer", 2018); and as a teenage band member in the flashbacks of the Ruhrpott tragicomedy "So viel Zeit" ("Comeback", 2018).
He had other important parts in Thomas Stuber's "Kruso" (2018, TV), as a young man who spends the summer of 1989 on the island of Hiddensee after the accidental death of his girlfriend, and in the three-parter "Preis der Freiheit" (2019), as a GDR functionary who also serves as the story's off-screen narrator. In "Martha und Tommy" (2020), Berlin played a law student alongside Senta Berger who earns a living for himself and his eight-year-old brother with illegal mixed martial arts fights.
Starting in January 2021, he was in front of the camera for Maggie Peren's "Der Passfälscher" ("The Forger"), as the best friend of a young Jew who uses ever-changing identities to protect himself from the Nazis during the Nazi era. During filming, in February 2021, Berlin outed himself to SZ magazine as part of the #actout initiative with 184 other lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, non-binary and trans* actors. Also in 2021, Berlin was in front of the camera for the drama "Comeback" and the political drama "Black Box." "Der Passfälscher" opened in theaters in fall 2022.