Max Riemelt, born January 7, 1984, in Berlin, played theatre at school and made his professional acting debut in 1997 in the TV movie "Eine Familie zum Küssen". In 1999, the autodidact Riemelt starred in his first film "Der Bär ist los" ("Bear On The Run"), directed by Dana Vavrova, and became known to a wider public as a futile admirer of one of the girls in "Mädchen, Mädchen" ("Girls on Top", 2001), directed by Dennis Gansel.

After several minor roles in TV series such as "Wolffs Revier" or "Alarm für Cobra 11", Riemelt made his breakthrough performance in Gansel"s "Napola – Elite für den Führer" ("Napola", 2004) and won the actor"s award at the 2004 Karlovy Vary film festival for his portrayal of the son of a working class family who enters an elite Nazi school. In 2005, Riemelt won the German Shooting Star award and further consolidated this image with leading roles in Dominik Graf"s youth drama "Der rote Kakadu" ("The Red Cockatoo", 2005) - for which he won Bayerischer Filmpreis 2006 -, in Dennis Gansel"s highly praised adaptation of the novel "Die Welle" ("The Wave", 2008), and in Hardi Sturm"s ambitious romantic comedy "Up! Up! To the Sky" (2008). In the successful comedy "13 Semester" ("13 Semesters", 2009) by Frieder Wittich he plays a slightly overstrained freshman student.

After TV-roles as in "Der Untergang der Pamir" (2006) and "An die Grenze" (2007) Riemelt plays the leading role of a Berlin police officer in Dominik Graf"s celebrated crime series "Im Angesicht des Verbrechens" ("In the Face of Crime", 2010), followed by another role as detective in the vampire drama "Wir sind die Nacht" ("We Are the Night", 2010), again directed by Dennis Gansel.