Benno Fürmann

Benno Fürmann (born Benjamin Fürmann on 17 January 1972) is a versatile German actor whose career spans film, television and voice work. Raised in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin, he faced extreme hardship early on: by age fifteen both of his parents had died, leaving him effectively orphaned. Two years later, a reckless train‑surfing stunt resulted in a severe accident that kept him hospitalized for six weeks, a near‑tragedy that deepened his resolve to pursue the arts. After completing his Mittlere Reife he held a series of modest jobs as a waiter and a bouncer before moving to New York City in 1991 to study at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, where he honed the method techniques that would later define his screen presence. Returning to Germany, Fürmann made his screen debut in the early 1990s and quickly built a reputation for intense, emotionally layered performances. Notable early roles include The Bubi Scholz Story (1998), for which he earned the 1999 German Television Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and the critically acclaimed Anatomy (2000). His breakout leading parts arrived with the dramatic mountain‑climbing biopic The North Face (2008), where he portrayed the legendary alpinist Toni Kurz, and the neo‑noir Jerichow the same year, solidifying his status as a leading man in contemporary German cinema. In addition to on‑screen work, Fürmann has become the beloved German voice of Puss in Boots in the Shrek franchise, a role he has reprised across multiple sequels and the recent Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022). He received the Bavarian Film Award for Best Actor in 2000, and has continued to appear in a range of projects from historical dramas like In Darkness (2011) to the internationally popular series Babylon Berlin (2017‑2022). Outside of his professional life, Fürmann is a father to a daughter and resides in Berlin, where he remains an influential figure in the German acting community.