Julia Jentsch, born February 20, 1978, in West Berlin, made her stage debut already in 1995 and caused a stir one year later with her performance as Gretchen in Hofmannsthal"s "Urfaust" at Freie Bühne Witzleben. In 1997, Jentsch started to study acting at Hochschule Ernst Busch and successfully graduated four years later. In 2000, while still studying in Berlin, she won the Max Reinhardt prize for her role in "Die Perser" ("The Persians") at Berlin"s Maxim Gorki Theater.

In 2001, Jentsch became a cast member of Munich"s Kammerspiele where she performed in productions of "Othello" and "Antigone", among others. Jentsch stayed at Kammerspiele until 2006. In 2002, the theatre magazine "Theater heute" named her "Best young actress".

After a couple of TV appearances, Julia Jentsch made her debut on the big screen in 2001 with a role in the youth drama "Mein Bruder der Vampir" ("Getting My Brother Laid"). Three years later, she made her breakthrough performance as a movie actress in the leading role of Hans Weingartner"s highly-praised film "Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei" ("The Edukators"). Jentsch won the Bavarian film award and the award of German film critics as "Best young actress" for her portrayal of an ethically ambivalent "metropolitan revolutionary".

Jentsch then caused a stir with her powerful portrayal of resistance fighter Sophie Scholl in Marc Rothemund"s film "Sophie Scholl – Die letzten Tage" ("Sophie Scholl – The Final Days", 2005). Besides receiving fulsome reviews, Jentsch won a Silver Bear at the 2005 Berlin film festival, the German film award, the award of German film critics, as well as two European film awards (the jury award as Best actress and the audience award). Despite her overwhelming success, Jentsch then withdrew from the film business to focus on her theatre career.

At the end of 2008, Jentsch returned to the big screen in two ambitious movie productions: In "33 Szenen aus dem Leben" ("33 Scenes From Life"), she portrays an artist who has to cope with a number of strokes of fate, and in Hermine Huntgeburth"s Fontane adaptation "Effi", Jentsch stars in the title role of Effi Briest.