Mišel Matičević


Mišel Matičević is a German film, television and theater actor of Croatian descent. He is frequently cast in "tough guy" roles.

Early life and education

Matičević was born in West Berlin to Croatian parents who were guest workers in West Germany. Following his parents' divorce, he lived with his mother in Berlin-Spandau. He was initially a trouble maker in childhood and would get in fistfights at school. He refused to join the school's theater group, feeling it was only for kids who were trying to "suck up" to the teachers. However, Matičević saw the 1983 film Danton with Gérard Depardieu and was inspired by Depardieu's performance to become an actor.
He studied acting from 1994 until 1998 at the Konrad Wolf Film University of Babelsberg in Potsdam. While there, he performed with the Berliner Ensemble at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin and the Kleist Theater in Frankfurt Oder.

Career

Since 1996, Matičević has acted in several crime series and films for German television and cinema. He was awarded the Best Actor Award at the 2000 Thessaloniki International Film Festival for his performance in Lost Killers.
In 2007, he played the role of the German poet and novelist Clemens Brentano in the film Das Gelübde, which depicts Brentano's encounter with the stigmatised nun Anne Catherine Emmerich.
Matičević's first international role was in the TNT miniseries The Company in 2006, a show about the CIA in which he played a fictional Hungarian poet called Arpad Zelk, a leader of the Hungarian uprising in 1956.

Personal life

Since 2014, Matičević has been an ambassador for :de:Deutschlandstiftung Integration|Deutschlandstiftung Integration, which promotes and celebrates ethnic diversity in Germany, to support the children of guest workers. He has said: "Guest worker children have always existed and will always exist. I deliberately don't say migrants, but guest worker children, because I am also a guest worker child and have learned so much. I just do not like the term migrant. And I'm glad to be able to pass on some of my knowledge and experience."

Selected filmography

YearTitleRoleNotes
2000Lost KillersBranco
2008A Year Ago in WinterAldo
2009Effi BriestMajor Crampas
2010In the ShadowsTrojan
2011KokowäähRob Kaufmann
2012My Beautiful CountryRamiz
2014The King's SurrenderMendes

YearTitleRoleNotes
1998TatortCarlo1 episode
1998Wolffs Revier
1999Schwarz greift ein
2000–2001Die Cleveren2 episodes
2001HeliCops – Einsatz über Berlin
2002Das DuoBenno Polenz2 episodes
2003Doppelter Einsatz
2003Inspector Rex
2003Alarm für Cobra 11 – Die Autobahnpolizei
2004Leipzig Homicide
2005Mit Herz und Handschellen
2005K3 – Kripo Hamburg
2005Abschnitt 40
2007TatortMilan Popov1 episode
2007The CompanyArpad Zelk
2010Im Angesicht des VerbrechensMisha
2011TatortDr. Christoph Rubner1 episode
2011Polizeiruf 110Ole Mahler, prosecutor1 episode
2012Fast Forward
2013TatortAnte Mladec, valet1 episode
2013–2014Die Chefin2 episodes
2014Der letzte Bulle
2015Schuld nach Ferdinand von Schirach
2015/2017TatortSimic/Roman Eggers2 episodes
2017Babylon BerlinEdgar Kasabian
2018TatortNenad Ljubic/Nikola/Mike Liebknecht2 episodes
2018Dogs of BerlinTomo Kovac