Leonie Benesch

Leonie Benesch (born 22 April 1991) is a German actress. She has played roles in various film and TV productions including Babylon Berlin, The Crown, Around the World in 80 Days and The Teachers' Lounge. For her role in the latter, in 2023, she received the award for Best Performance in a Leading Role at the German Film Awards.

Biography
In 2009, Benesch played the role of Eva in the film The White Ribbon, which won the Golden Palm. Film critics singled out her performance as "a discovery". She received the American "Young Artist Award" for her work, as well as a "New Faces Award". In 2010, she performed in Philip Koch's drama Picco and in Sophie Heldman's film Colors in the Dark (Satte Farben vor Schwarz), where she worked alongside Senta Berger and Bruno Ganz.

In 2017, Benesch performed in Babylon Berlin as Greta Overbeck, winning the "German Acting Prize". Benesch also performed in The Crown as the sister of Prince Philip, Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark. In 2020, she was cast in the BBC miniseries Around the World in 80 Days, alongside David Tennant as Phileas Fogg and Ibrahim Koma as Passepartout.

In 2023, she won the German Film Award for her leading role as an idealistic teacher (Carla Nowak) in the German drama The Teachers’ Lounge, cowritten and directed by İlker Çatak, in the category Best Female Leading Role. She was also nominated for the European Film Award, while a year later, the film received an Oscar nomination for Best International Film. Commenting on the success of the film in an interview, Benesch told GoldDerby, "the film was finished for nine months and nobody wanted to buy it. All the distributors said they didn’t see any international potential. It’s too small, it’s too much text, it’s too German. When we had our premiere in Ireland there was a buzz and we got sold out across the globe. It was a complete surprise!"

Personal life
Benesch grew up in Tübingen as the oldest of four children, and attended the Freie Waldorfschule and the Rudolf-Steiner-Schule in Schildesche. She also attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.