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Carlo Ljubek (Hrvoje-Carlo Ljubek) was born in Bocholt in 1976. After graduating from school, the son of Croation immigrants took an apprenticeship as an industry salesman in Munich. He then qualified for higher learning and enrolled at Cologne University, majoring in German and history.
In 1999, he returned to Munich and studied acting at the renowned Otto-Falckenberg-Schule. Before his graduation in 2002, he regularly appeared in stage productions of the Münchner Kammerspiele. From 2002 till 2007, he was part of the ensemble at the Wiesbadener Staatstheater, appearing as "Hamlet", "Don Carlos" and Leonce in "Leonce and Lena". In 2007, Ljubek joined the Kölner Schauspielhaus, performing in productions of "Nibelungen", Moliere’s "Der Menschenfeind" and in Ödön von Horváths "Kasimir und Karoline". In addition to this, Ljubek also performed with the Maxim Gorki Theater at the theatre festival in Recklinghausen.
While still studying acting, Carlo Ljubek already appeared in TV productions like the crime series "Die Verbrechen des Professor Capellari". He made his screen debut in the 2003 feature film "Heimkehr", which focused on psychological damages caused by the Balkan War. This was followed by major parts in Sherry Hormann’s soccer comedy "Männer wie wir" ("Balls") and Hendrik Hölzemann’s award-winning coming-of-age-drama "Kammerflimmern" ("Off Beat").
Although being a much demanded theatre actor, Ljubek still continued to appear in film and television over the years. He starred in the made-for-TV comedy "Deutschmänner" (2005) and in the international production "Die Welt ist groß und Rettung lauert überall" ("The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner", 2008), based on the eponymous bestseller. In 2010, Carlo Ljubek joined the cast of "Shahada" ("Faith"), an episode film about three young Muslims in Germany, whose fates intertwine during the Ramadan. The feature film debut of director Burhan Qurbani premiered in the competition of the 2010 IFF Berlin.
Since 2011, Ljubek has focused almost exclusively on work in front of the camera, taking on numerous supporting and leading roles in film and television productions. For example, he played a gangster in the "Tatort" episode "Zirkuskind" (2014), a bandit in "Winnetou" (2016, TV), an investigative journalist in the six-part thriller series "Die Stadt und die Macht" (2016), and an expert caught up in the past of the Duisburg Love Parade disaster in "Das Leben danach" (2017). Ljubek's versatility was further demonstrated by his performances as a detective in the "Tatort" episode "Damian" (2018), a homeless man in "Auf dünnem Eis" (2020), and a murderous police officer in the Netflix thriller series "Schlafende Hunde" ("Sleeping Dog", 2022).
On the big screen, he played an Afghan ex-agent in the spy and revenge thriller "Luna" (2017), a charming adventurer in the tragicomedy "Kill Me Today, Tomorrow I'm Sick!" (2019), a dutiful "colleague" of Death incarnate in the tragicomedy "Sophia, der Tod und ich" ("Sophia, Death and Me", 2023) and as a husband in Michael Fetter Nathansky's social and relationship drama "Alle die du bist" ("Every You Every Me", DE/ES 2024), which premiered in the Panorama section of the Berlinale film festival 2024.