---
name: "Leonie Benesch"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/leonie-benesch"
fi1m_id: "leonie-benesch"
imdb_id: "nm2914059"
tmdb_id: 119065
wikidata_id: "Q112082"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "22 April 1991"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 4
average_fi1m_score: 80
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 4
updated: "2026-10-07T18:04:16.468991+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Leonie Benesch

## Identity

Leonie Benesch

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/leonie-benesch
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** leonie-benesch
- **IMDb ID:** nm2914059
- **TMDB ID:** 119065
- **Wikidata ID:** Q112082
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonie_Benesch, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q112082, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2914059/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/119065

Actor. Born 22 April 1991 in Hamburg, Germany.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 22 April 1991, Hamburg, Germany
- **Active:** 2009–present
- **Frequently works with:** [Stefan Arndt](https://film.one/person/stefan-arndt.md)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 80, as actor, over 4 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 2000s 86 (1), 2010s 81 (2), 2020s 74 (1)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 80 to 75 across 3 titles
- **Score spread:** 3 at 80+, 1 at 60–79, 0 under 60
- **Lead roles:** 0 of 3 acting credits billed first or second
- **Genres:** Drama 4, Mystery 2, Crime 1, History 1, Thriller 1
- **Screen time:** 4 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $13m across 2 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonie_Benesch, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q112082, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2914059/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/119065

## Coming up

- *ZOMA* (2027-02-18), as Elli Schreiber

## Streaming the US now

- **Apple TV:** [*Babylon Berlin*](https://film.one/tv/babylon-berlin.md) (82)
- **Paramount+:** [*September 5*](https://film.one/film/september-5.md) (74)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Leonie Benesch

> Leonie Benesch is particularly good at playing people trying to do right without being certain how. We rate her restraint, from the awkward affection of *The White Ribbon* to the pressured idealism of *The Teachers’ Lounge*.

In *The White Ribbon* (2009), Eva and the schoolteacher have to find their way through a courtship neither makes look easy. Benesch and Christian Friedel let the awkwardness remain, and the affection is more convincing for it. We were moved by their sweetness because, among adults so practised at making children afraid, their efforts to be kind came as a relief. Benesch gives us a reason to care about Eva without asking Haneke to soften the rest of his film.

Haneke sets a difficult scale for those performances. Christian Berger’s black-and-white photography and the film’s long, severe attention to village life leave little room for an actor to push for sympathy. Benesch is effective because she lets the small embarrassment of courtship matter in its own right. The severity can become repetitive, but we would not want the courtship made brighter or broader to compensate.

Secondary parts in German films and television followed, before Greta Overbeck in *Babylon Berlin* (2017) brought wider notice. *The Teachers’ Lounge* (2023) gave her the lead as Carla Nowak, an idealistic teacher facing moral pressure. Her controlled approach suits a role built around the difficulty of doing the right thing. It also puts the person wrestling with that difficulty at the centre of the film. Her supporting role as Marianne Gebhardt in 2024 continued her work in historical settings.

There is a risk in repeatedly playing people under moral pressure: an audience can begin to admire their principles without getting interested in the person. That is why the awkwardness in Eva matters so much to us. Benesch and Friedel make us care about two people attempting a courtship, rather than simply feel grateful that someone in the village is being pleasant. Begin with *The White Ribbon*, but do not expect its courtship to make Haneke’s village a comfortable place to spend an evening.

## Biography

Leonie Benesch is a German actress. Born on 22 April 1991 in Hamburg, she made her screen debut as a teenager in the 2009 film *The White Ribbon*, directed by Michael Haneke, playing the role of Eva.

She trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, graduating in 2016 after earlier studies and classes in Berlin. Benesch is known for her performances as Greta Overbeck in the series *Babylon Berlin* (2017–2020), Princess Cecilie in *The Crown* (2017), and Abigail 'Fix' Fortescue in the BBC series *Around the World in 80 Days* (2021). In 2023 she starred as Carla Nowak in *The Teachers' Lounge*, for which she won the German Film Award for Best Performance in a Leading Role. She also appeared in *Persian Lessons* (2020) and *September 5* (2024).

For her early work in *The White Ribbon* she received a Young Artist Award and a New Faces Award. She won a German Screen Actors Award for her role in *Babylon Berlin*.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, filmportal.de.*

## On Fi1m (4)

- *September 5* (2024), Fi1m 74, as Marianne Gebhardt — [page](https://film.one/film/september-5.md)
- *Babylon Berlin* (2017), Fi1m 82, as Greta Overbeck — [page](https://film.one/tv/babylon-berlin.md)
- *Howards End* (2017), Fi1m 80, as Frieda Mosenbach — [page](https://film.one/tv/howards-end-2017.md)
- *The White Ribbon* (2009), Fi1m 86, as Eva — [page](https://film.one/film/the-white-ribbon.md)

## Complete filmography (38)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *ZOMA* (2027), as Elli Schreiber
- *Prisoner* (2026), series, as Nina Drâgus
- *Berlin Hero* (2025), as Natalie Hartung
- *Late Shift* (2025), as Floria Lind
- *September 5* (2024), as Marianne Gebhardt — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/film/september-5.md)
- *Moresnet* (2024), series, as Eva Rolin
- *The Teachers' Lounge* (2023), as Carla Nowak
- *The Swarm* (2023), series, as Charlie Wagner
- *Around the World in 80 Days* (2021), series, as Abigail 'Fix' Fortescue
- *Spy City* (2020), series, as Eliza Hahn
- *Persian Lessons* (2020), as Elsa
- *The Turncoat* (2020), series, as Hildegard Roth
- *Phoenix* (2020), Actor
- *Holiday Secrets* (2019), series, Actor
- *Vienna Blood* (2019), series, as Helena Rieger
- *Der Club der singenden Metzger* (2019), series, Actor
- *The Master Butcher* (2019), as Eva
- *Brecht* (2019), series, as Young Elisabeth Hauptmann
- *1929 - Das Jahr Babylon* (2018), Actor
- *Counterpart* (2017), series, as Sofia
- *Howards End* (2017), series, as Frieda Mosenbach — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/tv/howards-end-2017.md)
- *Babylon Berlin* (2017), series, as Greta Overbeck — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/tv/babylon-berlin.md)
- *The Crown* (2016), series, as Princess Cecilie — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-crown.md)
- *8 Seconds* (2015), as Helen
- *Viking Women* (2014), as Jova
- *Das Jerusalem-Syndrom* (2013), as Maria
- *Die Flut ist pünktlich* (2013), as Mia Halbach
- *George* (2013), as Margot Hanke
- *Heiter bis tödlich - Morden im Norden* (2012), series, as Gaby Zinke
- *Picco* (2011), as Kevins Girlfriend
- *Colors in the Dark* (2011), as Yvonne
- *Eine feste Burg* (2010), as Katja Klein
- *The White Ribbon* (2009), as Eva — Fi1m 86, [page](https://film.one/film/the-white-ribbon.md)
- *Beautiful Bitch* (2007), as Gitti
- *Der Kriminalist* (2006), series, as Clarissa von Tannenhof
- *SOKO Köln* (2003), series, as Nadia Winkowski
- *Scene of the Crime* (1970), series, as Julia
- *Mädchen in Uniform*, Actor

## Gallery

- ![Leonie Benesch](https://film.one/media/person/100287/gallery-825685699815.jpg) Leonie Benesch — Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/12/Leonie_Benesch-0743.jpg/1280px-Leonie_Benesch-0743.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Leonard Stettnisch und Leonie Benesch bei der Premiere des Films Das Lehrerzimmer bei der Berlinale 2023](https://film.one/media/person/100287/gallery-3f4c2715b5fe.jpg) Leonard Stettnisch und Leonie Benesch bei der Premiere des Films Das Lehrerzimmer bei der Berlinale 2023 — IgorCalzone1, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9e/Das_Lehrerzimmer_Leonard_Stettnisch_und_Leonie_Benesch_1_%28Berlinale_2023%29.jpg/1280px-Das_Lehrerzimmer_Leonard_Stettnisch_und_Leonie_Benesch_1_%28Berlinale_2023%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Leonard Stettnisch und Leonie Benesch bei der Premiere des Films Das Lehrerzimmer bei der Berlinale 2023](https://film.one/media/person/100287/gallery-2886e12eff21.jpg) Leonard Stettnisch und Leonie Benesch bei der Premiere des Films Das Lehrerzimmer bei der Berlinale 2023 — IgorCalzone1, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Das_Lehrerzimmer_Leonard_Stettnisch_und_Leonie_Benesch_2_%28Berlinale_2023%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Leonie Benesch bei der Premiere des Films Das Lehrerzimmer bei der Berlinale 2023](https://film.one/media/person/100287/gallery-c5e6eeee3b3e.jpg) Leonie Benesch bei der Premiere des Films Das Lehrerzimmer bei der Berlinale 2023 — IgorCalzone1, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b5/Das_Lehrerzimmer_Leonie_Benesch_%28Berlinale_2023%29.jpg/1280px-Das_Lehrerzimmer_Leonie_Benesch_%28Berlinale_2023%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Leonie Benesch](https://film.one/media/person/100287/gallery-110fe908a8f0.jpg) Leonie Benesch — Image via TMDB
- ![Leonie Benesch](https://film.one/media/person/100287/gallery-44749a30228f.jpg) Leonie Benesch — Image via TMDB
- ![Leonie Benesch](https://film.one/media/person/100287/gallery-9c343e36b011.jpg) Leonie Benesch — Image via TMDB
- ![Actress Leonie Benesch at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival (2025)](https://film.one/media/person/100287/gallery-5bf61018fc36.jpg) Actress Leonie Benesch at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival (2025) — Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ad/Leonie_Benesch-0711.jpg/1280px-Leonie_Benesch-0711.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Actress Leonie Benesch at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival (2025)](https://film.one/media/person/100287/gallery-f5ad094c2f05.jpg) Actress Leonie Benesch at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival (2025) — Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ad/Leonie_Benesch-0732.jpg/1280px-Leonie_Benesch-0732.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Leonie Benesch](https://film.one/media/person/100287/gallery-82591755d6bd.jpg) Leonie Benesch — Image via TMDB

## Awards

### Other awards — 0 won, 2 nominated

- German Film Award for Best Supporting Actress 2025: German Film Award for Best Supporting Actress (nominated), for *September 5*
- European Film Award for Best Actress 2023: European Film Award for Best Actress (nominated), for *The Teachers' Lounge*

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/leonie-benesch