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Jacob Matschenz, born 1984 in Berlin, became an actor during his school days rather accidentally: Sent by his mother, he applied for a casting but did not land the part. Nevertheless, director Jakob Hilpert gave him a part in his graduation film "Kleine Kreise" ("Circling", 1999). In the following years, the autodidact who never attended drama school appeared in movie and TV productions such as Kai Wessel's "Juls Freundin" (2002) or Norbert Baumgarten's comedy "Befreite Zone" ("Liberated Zone", 2003). In 2005, Matschenz made his breakthrough performance in the leading role of "Das Lächeln der Tiefseefische" ("The Smile of the Monsterfish"). His portrayal of a sensitive teenager living in adverse conditions won Matschenz the award of "Best young actor" at the Max Ophuels film festival.
Matschenz then consolidated his reputation as one of the most promising young actors in German cinema with his parts in the highly praised "Wholetrain", a film about graffiti sprayers, and in the drama "Neandertal" (both 2006). In 2008, he appeared in four different productions: Matschenz starred alongside Nadeshda Brennicke in the TV movie "Unschuld", in the "coming of age" story "Zweier Ohne" ("Coxless Pair"), in Dennis Gansel's star-studded adaptation of the novel "Die Welle" ("The Wave"), and in the omnibus film "Berlin – 1. Mai" ("Berlin – 1st of May") that premiered at the 2008 Berlinale.
Also in 2008, he played a supporting role in Caroline Link's "Im Winter ein Jahr" ("A Year Ago in Winter"). This was followed by appearances in "Die Vorstadtkrokodile" ("The Crocodiles") and the adventure romp "12 Meter ohne Kopf" ("12 Paces Without a Head"). In 2010, Matschenz starred in two productions: In "Renn, wenn Du kannst" ("Run If You Can") he plays a male nurse caught in a love triangle, and in the award-winning drama "Bis aufs Blut – Brüder auf Bewährung" ("Stronger Than Blood"), he portrays a convicted youth struggling to break free from a life of crime.
He next portrayed a troubled youth in the drama "Das System - alles verstehen heißt alles verzeihen" ("The System", 2011), and had a lead role in "Etwas Besseres als den Tod" ("Beats Being Dead"), Christian Petzold's entry in the TV trilogy "Dreileben".
After appearing in Til Schweiger's action film "Schutzengel" ("Guardians") and Dietrich Brüggemann's "3 Zimmer/Küche/Bad" ("Move"), Matschenz starred in the comedy "Großstadtklein" (2013) and was one of the adult leads in the children's film "Sputnik" ("Mission: Sputnik", D/BE/CZ 2013). Following parts in the TV production "Die Pilgerin" (2014) and the drama "Jack", Matschenz played the title character in "Till Eulenspiegel" (2014, TV). He again proved his knack for comedy in the political satire "Heil" (2015), playing a Neo-Nazi who plans to invade Poland.
After smaller appearances in the international co-production "Jeder stirbt für sich allein" ("Alone in Berlin", 2016) and the children's film "Rico, Oskar und der Diebstahlstein" ("Rico, Oskar and the Mysterious Stone", 2016), he was seen in the comedy "Mein Blind Date mit dem Leben" ("My Blind Date with Life", 2017) in a leading role as the best friend and colleague of a blind waiter. He also had leading roles in the comedy "Vorwärts immer!" ("Forwards Ever!", 2017) and in the tragicomedy "Magical Mystery oder: Die Rückkehr des Karl Schmidt" ("Magical Mystery – or: The Return of Karl Schmidt", 2017).
On television he appeared in Dietrich Brüggemann's "Tatort" series episodes "Stau" (2017, as a chauffeur) and "Murot und das Murmeltier" (2018, as a policeman). From 2017 on, Matschenz belonged to the ensemble of the series "Babylon Berlin" as a supposed communist; in the second season of the series "Charité" (2019) he played a gay nurse who has to hold back his affection for a medical officer in order not to be sent to a concentration camp.
In the award-winning drama "Nur eine Frau" (2019), based on the real-life case of Hatun Sürücü who was shot in the head and killed by her brother, Matschenz played the friend of a German Kurdish woman who wants to lead a self-determined life. Christian Petzold's fairytale love story "Undine" (2020) showed him as the mythical title character's ex-boyfriend.
In spring/summer 2020, Matschenz appeared in front of the camera for "Das schwarze Quadrat" ("The Black Square"), a bizarre comedy of tricksters about two art thieves who steal the famous Malevich painting "The Black Square".