Born in Munich, living in Berlin, and having trained at the University of the Arts (Max Reinhardt Seminar) there, Martina Gedeck is one of the most internationally successful and celebrated actresses of our time. She is equally at home in theater and film, although her work focuses primarily on cinema. She has appeared in more than 140 film and television productions, always with lasting success, and has received over 50 national and international awards.

She received her first film award for her portrayal of Serafina, the "waiter of love," in Helmut Dietl's "Rossini." With "Bella Martha," a portrait of a brilliant master chef, she created another award-winning female character. In the Oscar-winning film "The Lives of Others," she delivered one of her most impressive performances as the sensitive, inwardly conflicted, yet unwaveringly creative actress Christa Maria Sieland. In the film "The Wall," she paints a disturbing portrait of a woman cut off from the world, fighting for her psychological survival. Also Oscar-nominated and a worldwide success is the film "The Baader Meinhof Complex," in which she plays the journalist and activist Ulrike Meinhof.

Her international work includes collaborations in France, Italy, Spain, and the USA with renowned artists such as Istvan Szabo, Francis Girod, Guillaume Nicloux, Bille August, Mika Kaurismäki, Daniele Luchetti, Sergio Castellito, Robert De Niro, Matt Damon, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Jeremy Irons, and many others.

Martina Gedeck was a member of the ensemble at the Schauspielhaus Hamburg under the artistic direction of Peter Zadek. Her stage career has also included engagements at the Theater am Turm Frankfurt, Schauspiel Basel, Komödie am Kurfürstendamm, the Salzburg Festival, and the Deutsches Theater Berlin.

A special place in her artistic practice is occupied by performing with musicians: As an experienced and expressive speaker, combining poetry with music is the essence of her work with renowned orchestras, ensembles, and soloists. This includes collaborations with the Sharoun Ensemble, harpist Xavier de Maistre, the Schumann Quartet, mandolinist Avi Avital, pianist Elena Bashkirova, and many others. This intensive engagement with music has also profoundly influenced her approach to the spoken word. Over the years, this has resulted in a diverse repertoire of varying musical and literary styles, which she performs in both large (including the Berlin Philharmonie, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Vienna Konzerthaus, and the Kunsthalle Maag Zürich) and smaller concert halls in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

In 2020, she appeared on stage at the Berlin State Opera in Beat Furrer's world premiere of the opera "Violet Snow" as the "White Woman," a being who exists in the liminal space between life and death. In 2024, she portrayed Mephistopheles in Arrigo Boito's "Mefistofele" at the Semperoper Dresden, also acting as his inner voice, reciting texts from Goethe's "Faust."

Martina Gedeck is a member of the European Film Academy, the German Film Academy, and the Academy of Performing Arts, and is a recipient of the Bavarian Order of Merit, the Maximilian Order, and the title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres. Since 2024, she has been a member of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.