Bjarne Ingmar Mädel, born on March 12, 1968, in Hamburg, studied World Literature and Creative Writing in California after graduating from high school. He soon returned to Hamburg to start working as a construction worker. He then began to study German and Theatre Studies at Erlangen University, before he continued to study acting at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf in Potsdam shortly afterwards in 1992.

In 1995, he won an advancement award for acting students from the Federal Minister for Education, Science, Research and Technology for his work on George Tabori's "Die Kannibalen" and Edward Albee's "Die Zoogeschichte". After finishing his studies, he got an acting job at the Volkstheater Rostock where he continued to work until 1999. He then began his second engagement at the Hamburg Schauspielhaus until 2004.
He made his first appearance on German Television in 2002 with a supporting role in "Ausgelöscht" and a guest appearance in "Der Ermittler". His breakthrough role was his portrayal of the humble Berthold "Ernie" Heisterkamp whom he played in the hit series "Stromberg" from 2004 to 2012.

He gave his debut on the big screen with a leading role in Matthias Keilich's "Die Könige der Nutzholzgewinnung" ("Lumber Kings"). It is a provincial comedy and Mädel plays a sympathetic loser, who is determined to organize a lumberjack / woodcutter competition in his tiny village called "Tanne". In the following year, he was part of the ensemble in Vanessa Jopp's comedy "Meine schöne Bescherung" (2007). Mädel plays an eccentric neighbor of a dysfunctional family whose Christmas party turns into a complete nightmare. In 2008, he got a supporting role in Lars Jessen's road movie "Der Schimmelreiter" ("Sheep and Chips"), in which he plays a strict supervisor.

Mädel continued to work as an actor for popular German television series, including "Mord mit Aussicht" (2008-2014). He was nominated for the Bayerischer Fernsehpreis for his portrayal of a salesman for electronic goods, who becomes famous for his schnapps commercial in Ralf Husmann's "Der kleine Mann" (2009).

Apart from leading roles, he guest-starred in "Tatort", "Küstenwache" and "Der Dicke". His most important roles in German television films were in Lars Becker's "Schief gewickelt" (2010), in which he gave a supporting performance as a timid, but musically gifted post office clerk and in "Die Toten von Hameln" (2014). In the mystery thriller, he plays a police man who teams up with his ex-girlfriend to find a lost girl choir.

In 2014, he returned to German cinemas after six years with his portrayal of Ernie for the movie version of "Stromberg". He also made a guest appearance in Jonas Grosch's film "bestefreunde".

His biggest success came with "Der Tatortreiniger" on which he works again with Stromberg director Arne Feldhusen. It is a satirical comedy series set in Hamburg and he plays a crime scene cleaner, whose cases lead him to bizarre situations. Mädel was showered with honors for his leading role in "Der Tatortreiniger" and has won several awards, including the Grimme-Preis and the German comedy award. The most recent episode of the cult series was aired on German television in January 2016.

Mädel also appears in Anne Zohra Berrached's "24 Wochen" ("24 Weeks") which premiered at the Berlinale in February 2016. Julia Jentsch and Mädel play parents-to-be who find out that their unborn child will be severely disabled.

After turns in the theatrical releases "Unsere Zeit ist jetzt", "Robbi, Tobbi und das Fliewatüüt" ("Robby & Toby's Fantastic Voyager"), "Timm Thaler oder das verkaufte Lachen" ("The Legend of Timm Thaler or The Boy Who Sold His Laughter") and "Magical Mystery oder: Die Rückkehr des Karl Schmidt" ("Magical Mystery – or: The Return of Karl Schmidt", 2017), he was one of the leads in the acclaimed TV miniseries "Bruder – Schwarze Macht" (2017). Bjarne Mädel next starred opposite Bibiana Beglau in the award-winning drama "1000 Arten Regen zu beschreiben" ("Different Kinds of Rain", 2017).

In the following years, Bjarne Mädel received a wealth of awards for his diverse roles. To highlight a few: In 2018, he won the Deutscher Schauspielpreis (German Acting Award) as part of the ensemble in the improvisational comedy "Wellness für Paare". In 2019, he was honored with the Ernst-Lubitsch-Prize for his role in "25 km/h", alongside his co-star Lars Eidinger, and also received the Bayerischer Filmpreis (Bavarian Film Award) for the same performance. That same year, he won the Deutscher Schauspielpreis for his work in "Der Tatortreiniger" and was awarded the Preis für Schauspielkunst (Prize for the Art of Acting) at the Festival des deutschen Films in Ludwigshafen. 

Mädel also earned multiple nominations and awards, including the Grimme-Preis Schauspiel (Grimme Award for Acting) and the Grimme-Preis Regie (Grimme Award for Directing), for his role as a commissioner struggling with anxiety disorders in the darkly humorous TV crime series "Sörensen hat Angst" (2020). The sequel, "Sörensen fängt Feuer" (2023), garnered several nominations and awards, including the Deutscher Schauspielpreis 2024 in the Best Duo category for Mädel and Katrin Wichmann.

In addition to these, Mädel appeared in numerous other films, streaming productions, and television series, including the comedy "Faking Bullshit" (2020), the social drama "Geliefert" ("Delivered", 2021), and the quirky tragicomedy "Buba" (2022), where director Arne Feldhusen explores the prequel to the award-winning series "How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)". Mädel also starred in "Stromberg – Der neue Film" (2025), once again under Feldhusen’s direction.