August
Di­ehl

For mo­re than two de­cades, August Di­ehl has be­en one of the le­ading fi­gures of the Ger­man film and the­at­re sce­ne. He first ga­ined wi­desp­re­ad re­cog­ni­ti­on with his ro­le in Hans-Chris­ti­an Schmid's 23. In a se­ri­es of films, inc­lu­ding Kalt ist der Abend­ha­uch, Tat­too, Lo­ve in Tho­ughts (Was nützt die Li­ebe in Ge­dan­ken), Dis­tant Lights (Lich­ter), The Ninth Day (Der ne­un­te Tag), the Aca­demy Award-win­ning The Co­un­terfe­iters (Die Fälscher), Fre­isc­hwim­mer (He­ad Un­der Wa­ter), Dr. Alemán, and Bud­denb­ro­oks, he de­mons­tra­ted his re­mar­kable ver­sa­tili­ty as an ac­tor.

In 2009, he ap­pe­ared in Qu­en­tin Ta­ran­ti­no's Ing­lo­urious Bas­terds, fol­lo­wed in 2010 by Salt, di­rec­ted by Phil­lip No­yce.

On sta­ge, Di­ehl has de­live­red acc­la­imed per­forman­ces at the­at­res in Ber­lin, Ham­burg, Zu­rich, and Vi­en­na, ap­pe­aring in pro­duc­ti­ons such as The Se­agull, Don Car­los, The Jew of Mal­ta, and Ma­jor Bar­ba­ra. He has wor­ked with di­rec­tors inc­lu­ding Luc Bon­dy, Kla­us Mi­cha­el Grüber, and Pe­ter Za­dek, with whom he col­la­bora­ted on three pro­duc­ti­ons. His te­levi­si­on work al­so inc­lu­des Ka­bale und Li­ebe, di­rec­ted by Le­an­der Haußmann. 

For Lars Kra­ume's The Co­ming Da­ys (Die kom­menden Ta­ge), Di­ehl ap­pe­ared along­si­de Da­ni­el Brühl, Jo­han­na Wo­kalek, and Su­san­ne Lot­har. The film was re­le­ased in Ger­man ci­nemas in 2010.  In 2011, he port­ra­yed Bern­ward Ves­per in And­re­as Ve­iel's If Not Us, Who? (Wer wenn nicht wir), for which he re­ce­ived a no­mina­ti­on for the Ger­man Film Award. The film tells the sto­ry of the ge­nera­ti­on that pre­ceded the emer­gence of the Red Ar­my Fac­ti­on (RAF) and was se­lec­ted for the of­fi­ci­al com­pe­titi­on of the 2011 Ber­lin In­terna­ti­onal Film Fes­ti­val.

In 2011, Di­ehl fil­med Con­fessi­on (Con­fessi­on of a Child of the Cen­tu­ry) along­si­de Char­lotte Ga­ins­bo­urg and Pe­te Do­her­ty. The film pre­mi­ered in the Un Cer­ta­in Re­gard sec­ti­on of the Can­nes Film Fes­ti­val in 2012. Du­ring the win­ter and spring of 2012, he fil­med La­yla Fo­urie in So­uth Af­ri­ca un­der the di­rec­ti­on of Pia Ma­ra­is; the film had its world pre­mi­ere at the 2013 Ber­lin In­terna­ti­onal Film Fes­ti­val. Al­so in 2012, he ap­pe­ared in Bil­le August's in­terna­ti­onal co-pro­duc­ti­on Night Tra­in to Lis­bon, which li­kewi­se pre­mi­ered at the 2013 Ber­li­nale. His furt­her film cre­dits inc­lu­de The Young Karl Marx (Ra­oul Peck, 2015), Al­li­ed (Ro­bert Ze­mec­kis, 2016), A Hid­den Li­fe (Ter­rence Ma­lick, 2019), Plan A (Do­ron and Yoav Paz, 2021), and Der Räuber Hot­zenp­lotz (The Rob­ber Hot­zenp­lotz, Mi­cha­el Krum­me­nac­her, 2022). 

In re­cent years, Di­ehl has wor­ked ex­tensi­vely on in­terna­ti­onal pro­duc­ti­ons, inc­lu­ding Si­donie in Ja­pan (Éli­se Gi­rard, 2023), The Di­sap­pe­aran­ce of Jo­sef Men­ge­le (Ki­rill Se­reb­renni­kov, 2025), The Ice To­wer (La To­ur de Gla­ce, Lu­cile Hadžiha­lilo­vić, 2025), and The Ra­ys and Sha­dows (Les ra­yons et les omb­res, Xa­vi­er Gi­an­no­li, 2025). At the 2026 Can­nes Film Fes­ti­val, Fat­herland, di­rec­ted by Pa­weł Paw­li­kows­ki, had its acc­la­imed world pre­mi­ere. This film, to­get­her with Be­auti­ful So­uls (Schöne Se­elen) by Tom Schre­iber, was al­so pre­sen­ted at the 2026 Mu­nich Film Fes­ti­val. 

Di­ehl has al­so pla­yed le­ading and ma­jor ro­les in no­tab­le te­levi­si­on and stre­aming pro­duc­ti­ons, inc­lu­ding Per­fu­me (Phi­lipp Ka­del­bach, Netf­lix/ZDF, 2018), The New Era (Die ne­ue Ze­it, Lars Kra­ume, ZDF, 2019), and Pa­gan Pe­ak (Der Pass, Chris­topher Schi­er, Sky, 2022). In spring and sum­mer 2026, he is fil­ming Bo­ys from Bra­zil for Netf­lix.

In 2012, Di­ehl re­tur­ned to the ma­jor the­at­re sta­ge with The Prin­ce of Hom­burg, di­rec­ted by And­rea Breth in Vi­en­na and Salz­burg. His ar­tistic col­la­bora­ti­on with And­rea Breth con­ti­nu­ed with Ham­let at Vi­en­na's Burg­the­ater, for which he re­ce­ived the Nest­roy The­at­re Award in 2014. The acc­la­imed six-ho­ur pro­duc­ti­on was wi­dely ce­leb­ra­ted. He al­so ap­pe­ared at the Burg­the­ater in The Ho­use of the Spi­rits (Das Ge­is­terha­us), and at the Aka­demi­et­he­ater in John Hop­kins' The Sto­ry of Them (Die Gesc­hic­hte von Ih­nen). Di­ehl re­uni­ted with And­rea Breth for Long Day's Jo­ur­ney in­to Night at the Burg­the­ater in 2018 and Three Li­ves (Drei Mal Le­ben) at the Ber­li­ner En­semb­le in 2019. His ar­tistic col­la­bora­ti­on with Ki­rill Se­reb­renni­kov has al­so con­ti­nu­ed on sta­ge, most re­cent­ly in The Bliz­zard (Der Schne­es­turm) at the Düssel­dorfer Scha­us­pi­el­ha­us (2025/2026).

For his outs­tan­ding per­forman­ce in The Di­sap­pe­aran­ce of Jo­sef Men­ge­le, Di­ehl re­ce­ived the Ger­man Film Award for Best Ac­tor in 2026. It was the se­cond Ger­man Film Award of his ca­re­er sin­ce 23.