Elyas M'Barek

Elyas M'Barek was born on 29 May 1982 in Munich, West Germany to an Austrian mother and a Tunisian father, giving him a multicultural background that would later inform many of his on‑screen characters. From a young age he displayed a natural flair for performance, and his talent was spotted while he was still attending high school, leading to his first professional role in Dennis Gansel’s sex comedy Mädchen, Mädchen in 2001. His breakthrough came in 2006 with the television series Türkisch für Anfänger, where he portrayed the witty Turkish teenager Cem Öztürk, a part that made him a household name in German‑language comedy. Over the following years he diversified his repertoire, appearing in the critically acclaimed drama Die Welle (2008) as Sinan, a student who slides into fascist ideology, and lending his voice to the German version of Monsters University as the character Art. Since then M'Barek has become one of the most commercially successful actors in contemporary German cinema. The 2013 comedy Fack ju Göhte cemented his star status, attracting three million viewers within seventeen days and becoming the year’s top‑grossing German film, while his supporting turn in The Physician added an international dimension to his résumé. He continued to headline comedies such as The Perfect Secret (2019) and Nightlife (2020), and reunited with director Simon Verhoeven for Welcome to Germany (2016) and the upcoming Old White Man (2024). In 2025 he ventured into international television, leading the co‑production Smilla’s Sense of Snow as a Tunisian refugee, marking his first lead role in a global series. Throughout his career, M'Barek has demonstrated a remarkable ability to blend humor with depth, making him a versatile figure whose work resonates across cultural boundaries.