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Lena Urzendowsky was born in Berlin in 2000; her brother is the actor Sebastian Urzendowsky (*1985). At a very young age, starting in 2005, she attended the theatre and musical school Stage Factory Berlin, where she graduated in 2012 with the award 'Best student of the year'.
Urzendowsky made her debut in front of the camera in 2014 as the robber's daughter in the ZDF fairy tale film "Die Schneekönigin". In 2016 she belonged to the ensemble of the box-office hit "Bibi & Tina: Mädchen gegen Jungs". In the same year, she made her breakthrough in the leading role in the highly acclaimed TV movie "Das weiße Kaninchen" ("The White Rabbit"). For her intense portrayal of a thirteen-year-old girl who becomes a victim of cyber-grooming, she received the Günter Strack Television Prize, the Studio Hamburg Young Talent Prize, a Grimme Prize (together with the rest of the main team) and the Prize of Saarländischer Rundfunk at the Günter Rohrbach Film Awards.
The following year she was seen in a leading role in the family comedy "Kein Herz für Inder" (2017) and in two episodes each of the series "Der Usedom-Krimi" (2017) and "Dark" (2017).
Urzendowsky received much attention for her leading role in the TV movie "Der grosse Rudolph" (2018), about the rise of Munich fashion designer Rudolph Moshammer (played by Thomas Schmauser). For her performance as a sales employee and protégé of Moshammer, she received the Hessian Television Prize, the Promotion Prize of the German Television Prize, the Prize of the German Academy of Television and the German Acting Prize. Parallel to her work as an actor, Urzendowsky continued to go to school and graduated from high school in 2018.
She had further leading TV roles as a mysterious teenager in "Leonessa" (2019), an episode of the German TV crime series "Tatort", and as a GDR teenager suffering from MS, who becomes the victim of secret pharmaceutical tests, in Urs Egger's drama "Kranke Geschäfte" (TV, 2019). At the Berlinale 2020, the coming-of-age story "Kokon" ("Cocoon") celebrated its premiere in the competition of the section 'Generation 14plus', with Urzendowsky as a shy teenager stepping out of the shadow of her older sister.
Directed by Philipp Kadelbach, she was also part of the main ensemble of the streaming series "Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo" (DE/IT/CZ 2021).
In the spring of 2021, she could be seen in the ensemble of Oliver Kracht's feminist post-war drama "Trümmermädchen" ("Germany Year Zero") about four young women who attend a so-called "Fräuleinkurs". In the comedy "Sweet Disaster" (2021) she played the role of a young helper of a 40-year-old woman who tries to win back her ex-partner with absurd methods. For this role, she won the award for Best Supporting Actress at the British Romford Film Festival.
She had television roles as a neglected teenager in the "Tatort" crime drama "Luna frisst oder stirbt" (2021) and as a daughter in the tragicomedy "Mutter streikt" (2021).
In 2023, Urzendowsky played the title role in the play "Brynhild" at the Nibelungen Festival. She received the Mario Adorf Award for this role and donated the prize money to organizations such as Sea-Watch for civilian sea rescues in the Mediterranean.
In addition, Lena Urzendowsky appeared in several leading roles in 2023. She was part of the main cast of the streaming series "Luden" and on the big screen she played a woman with multiple personalities in the tragicomedy "Franky Five Star" and a member of an involuntary taxi sharing group in the road movie "791 km".