Franka Potente

FRANKA POTENTE

Date of Birth: July 22, 1974

This native of Dülmen, Germany spent her childhood and early teen years in a small-town. When she was 17, however, she moved to Houston, Texas for a year as a high school exchange student. "I did the whole thing. I had an American boyfriend, went to football games, tennis tournaments and to my American prom. I was so serious about my American boyfriend I brought him back to Germany with me to visit my parents. They were horrified."

Her training in acting began in high school both in Germany and the U.S. From 1994 to 1996 she studied at Munich's Otto Falkenberg School of Performing Arts. At age of 21, she landed her first role starring as 17-year-old Anna in Nach Fünf im Urwald (1996). Her performance earned her the Bavarian film award for Best Newcomer.

She continued to impress television fans and moviegoers, plus the critics in her native land. It wasn't until her portrayal of the orange-haired punk who screamed her way to saving her boyfriend in the popular film Run Lola Run (1989) that she garnered world wide exposure. Before she knew it, she had numerous Hollywood film offers to consider. Her English-language Hollywood debut was the role of Barbara, the stewardess/drug courier in Blow (2001), followed closely by a starring role in The Bourne Identity (2002). She reprised her role in The Bourne Supremacy (2004).

In the last few years, Potente appeared in various television shows, including American Horror Story, Copper, and The Bridge. She can now be seen as Anita Gregory in the 2016 horror sequel The Conjuring 2.

Potente dated the director of Run Lola Run, Tom Tykwer, from 1998 to 2002. In 2012, she married longtime partner Derek Richardson, with whom she has two daughters, Polly and Georgie.

Filmography:

The Conjuring 2 (2016)
Shanghai (2009)
Che (2009)
Eichmann (2007)
Romulus, My Father (2007)
Elementarteilchen (2006)
Creep (2004)
The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
Blueprint (2004)
I Love Your Work (2003)
Try Seventeen (2003)
Anatomie 2 (2002)
The Tulse Luper Suitcases (2003)
The Bourne Identity (2002)
Storytelling (2001)
Blow (2001)
Der Krieger und die Kaiserin (2000)
Anatomie (2000)
Schlaraffenland (1999)
Südsee, eigene Insel (1999)
Downhill City (1999)
¿Bin ich schön? (1998)
Lola rennt (1998)
Die Drei Mädels von der Tankstelle (1997)
Easy Day (1997)
Nach Fünf im Urwald (1996)