Otto Waalkes, born July 22nd 1948 in Emden (Eastern Frisia), has his first public performances as a musician with the band "The Rustlers" in 1964. While studying in Hamburg at Hochschule für Bildende Künste, he carries on to perform as a musician and plays in clubs and bars and earns the most applause for his comical fillers between the songs. In 1972 he has his first big concert at Audimax of Hamburg University – and mainly performs parodies and jokes. The recordings of this performance he sells on an album with his therefore founded label "Rüssl Räckords". In 1973 WDR gives Waalkes his first own TV-Show "Otto-Show", where he presents and plays Sketches framed by his cartoons of "Ottifanten" – funny little elephants.

With the backing of authors Robert Gernhardt, Bernd Eilert and Peter Knorr of the satirical magazines "Pardon" and "Titanic", the next successful stations in Waalkes' career are several sequels to his TV-show (which won several prizes), the album "Oh, Otto" (1975, awarded "Platin-Schallplatte" in 1979) and the books "Das Buch Otto" (1980) and "Das zweite Buch Otto" (1984). His show "Hilfe! Otto kommt!" for ZDF is awarded a silver Grimme-Preis in 1983. Waalkes together with his manager Hans Otto Mertens also produces "Ronnys Popshow" for ZDF.

In 1985 Waalkes stars in his first feature film "Otto – Der Film" – co-written by his approved team and the most successful German production of the year. "Otto – Der neue Film" (1987) again presents Waalkes as a slob in love. With dwindling success Waalkes continues the series of Otto-films in the following years. Better results he achieves with several production companies and the merchandising articles of Ottifanten.

After a long time without touring he is again performing on stage on his 1995 tour, resulting in the album "Otto – Live". In 2001 he tours again with his program "Only Otto", this time without band, just playing his guitar. In 2004 Waalkes together with many TV comedians parodies classic fairy tales in the film "7 Zwerge – Männer allein im Wald". Waalkes produces, writes and plays four roles in this huge box office hit. Two years later the sequel "7 Zwerge – Der Wald ist nicht genug" starts in German cinemas. In 2010, his next genuine "Otto"-film "Otto's Eleven" is released. With over 860,000 admissions, the film turns out to be a success.

Moreover, he appeared in an episode of "Das Traumschiff" and starred in the short "Otto's Traum" (2014), directed by Willy Bogner. After a cameo in the teen comedy "Kartoffelsalat" (2015), Waalkes played a friendly ghost in the children's film "Hilfe, ich hab meine Lehrerin geschrumpft" ("Help, I Shrunk My Teacher", DE/AT 2015) and its sequel "Hilfe, ich hab meine Eltern geschrumpft" ("Help, I Shrunk My Parents", DE/AT 2017).

In 2018, Otto Waalkes received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, 1st Class, and was honored with the German Cabaret Prize's Honorary Award.  

In 2020, he reprised his role as the eccentric ghost in "Hilfe, ich hab meine Freunde geschrumpft" ("Help, I Shrunk My Friends"). The following year, he took on the lead role in the movie adaptation of the cult series "Catweazle," which received the audience award at the Bavarian Film Awards.  

Furthermore, Otto Waalkes has been continuing his touring activities with stage programs and made appearances as the main attraction in TV shows such as "Otto Total" (2022).