David Kross | |
|---|---|
| David Kroß | |
.JPG) Kross in 2018 | |
| Born | (1990-07-04)4 July 1990 (age 34) Henstedt-Ulzburg, West Germany |
| Alma mater | London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 2002–present |
David Kross (born 4 July 1990) is a German actor. He began his career at a young age with a small role in the 2002 filmHilfe, ich bin ein Junge and worked sporadically, mainly focusing on his school work. In 2008, he portrayed Michael Berg in the filmThe Reader. For his part, he was nominated for various awards and went on to win the Sierra Award at the Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards for Youth in Film.
Kross has since worked in both German andEnglish speaking film roles, includingWar Horse,Race andInto the White.
Kross was born inHenstedt-Ulzburg, 20 miles north ofHamburg. He grew up inBargteheide, where he attended Eckhorst High School[1] until 2007. He has two brothers and one sister. He played basketball at the professional club TSV Bargteheide between 2004 and 2006.
His career started with a small appearance in the 2002 filmHilfe, ich bin ein Junge (English:Help, I'm a Boy!).[2] In December 2003, he joined Blaues Wölkchen, a small group from a children's theatre inBargteheide. His first major theatrical appearance was inHilfe, die Herdmanns kommen.[citation needed]
In 2005, Kross came to the attention ofDetlev Buck through his daughter, Bernadette, and he auditioned forTough Enough (Knallhart);[3] Buck hired Kross to play the lead,[4] a 15-year-old boy who moves with his mother from a rich neighborhood of Berlin (Zehlendorf) to theNeukölln area, known at the time for its high number of Turkish immigrants and high crime level. Kross not only won praise atBerlinale in 2006, but also won Best Actor inNuremberg at the 11th Filmfestival Türkei/Deutschland.[5]
In 2006, Kross worked again with Buck in the filmHands off Mississippi [de] (Hände weg von Mississippi), playing an apprentice baker. In the fall of the same year, he started shooting a film byMarco Kreuzpaintner,Krabat (The Satanic Mill). In this version ofOtfried Preußler'schildren's book, Kross plays the title role, one of the apprentices of magic, with co-starsDaniel Brühl andRobert Stadlober. The film was released on 19 September 2007 in movie festivals and in October 2008 in theatres.
In September 2007,[6]The Reader began shooting in Berlin,Cologne,[7] andGörlitz. InStephen Daldry's adaption of the best-selling novel by Bernhard Schlink about the relationship between a teenage boy and an older woman, Kross plays the lead role of Michael Berg, oppositeKate Winslet,Ralph Fiennes, andBruno Ganz. He had to learn to speak English to appear in the film.[8] The world premiere was at theZiegfeld Theatre in New York on 3 December 2008. The film was presented in the 2009Berlinale but did not compete. In May 2009, Kross was honored for his performance inThe Reader at the 62ndCannes Festival, winning the Chopard trophy. Kross was nominated for aEuropean Film Award as best actor.
His next work wasSame Same But Different (2009), again with Buck directing. The script is based on an autobiographical article by Benjamin Prüfer.
In June 2010, it was announced that Kross had been cast inSteven Spielberg's filmWar Horse.[9] Filming started in August 2010, inDartmoor, Devon, U.K. and the film was released in December 2011.[10]
In 2009, Kross started a three-year course atLondon Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).[11] His plan was to improve his acting and English skills but he dropped out at the end of the same year to concentrate on films. He has since lived inBerlin-Mitte. Kross has expressed no desire to move toHollywood, preferring to stay in Germany and continue making both German and English language films.[12]
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Hilfe, ich bin ein Junge | Paddy | Help, I'm a Boy! |
| 2003 | Adam & Eva | Adams Sohn | Austrian film |
| 2006 | Knallhart | Michael Polischka | Tough Enough |
| 2007 | Hände weg von Mississippi [de] | Bäckerlehrling Bröckel | Hands off Mississippi |
| 2008 | Krabat | Krabat | Adapted from a German language novelKrabat (The Satanic Mill in English) byOtfried Preußler |
| The Reader | Young Michael Berg | Las Vegas Film Critics Award for Youth in Film Nominated –Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Young Performer Nominated –Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor Nominated –European Film Award for Best Actor | |
| 2009 | Same Same But Different | Ben | Received Variety Piazza Grande Award at the International Film Festival organised in Locarno. |
| 2011 | Promising the Moon [de][13] | Young Osvalds Kalnins | |
| Rio | Blu | German Voice | |
| War Horse[14] | Private Gunther Schröder | ||
| 2012 | Into the White[15] | Josef Auchtor | |
| Measuring the World | Eugen Gauß | ||
| 2013 | Michael Kohlhaas | The Preacher | |
| 2015 | Boy 7 | Sam | |
| 2016 | Race | Carl "Luz" Long | |
| The General Case [de] | Joachim Hell | TV film | |
| 2017 | Halal Daddy | Jasper | |
| 2018 | Balloon | Günter Wetzel | |
| 2019 | The Keeper | Bert Trautmann | |
| 2020 | Rising High | Viktor | |
| 2021 | Prey | Roman | |
| Confessions of Felix Krull[16] | Marquis de Venosta | ||
| The King's Man[17] | Adolf Hitler | Credited as Moustached Man | |
| 2024 | Kafka | Miniseries | |
| 2025 | The World Will Tremble | TBA | |
| Fabula | The Grape | Opening film of theIFFR.[18] |
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