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Esther Schweins, born April 18, 1970, in Oberhausen, took acting lessons in Karlsruhe and studied for a year at Bochum's Westfälische Schauspielschule. Schweins then performed sproadically in theatre productions before a producer for the TV network RTL discovered her for the then new comedy show "RTL Samstag Nacht". Virtually over night, the show's success made Schweins known to a large public. The show's ensemble also won the 1994 Bavarian film award and, in the following years, Schweins became one the biggest stars of the German comedy scene. During this time, Schweins occasionally starred in film and TV productions such as "Das Superweib" ("The Super-Wife", 1994) or "Küsse niemals deinen Chef" (1996).
After her withdrawal from "RTL Samstag Nacht" in 1998, Schweins started to pursue an acting career beyond comedy formats. She starred in several successful TV productions, that covered a broad spectrum genre-wise. Schweins appeared in the thriller "Drei Tage Angst" (1998), as well as in ambitious dramas such as "Klassentreffen – Mordfall unter Freunden" (2001) or boulevard comedies such as "Auch Engel wollen nur das Eine" ("A Heavenly Gamble", 2002) alongside Thomas Heinze. From 2003 to 2006, Schweins was also seen in eight episodes of the highly praised RTL crime series "Die Cleveren". Furthermore, Schweins hosted the TV magazine shows "Foyer" (2002) and "Theaterlandschaften" (2006/2007) for the ZDF theatre channel and for 3sat, and directed a production of the successful play "Caveman".
In 2006, Schweins returned to the cinema and played a striking supporting part in the relationship drama "Maria an Callas" ("Maria to Callas"), and in 2008, she finally starred in her first leading role on the big screen in the psychological drama "Die Anruferin" ("The Calling Game") alongside Valerie Koch. She had further film roles in the marital comedy "Liebling, lass uns scheiden!" ("Let's Get Divorced, Darling!", CH 2010) and as the mother of the main characters in the children's film "Vorstadtkrokodile 2" (2010) and the fantasy film "Mara und der Feuerbringer" ("Mara and the Firebringer", 2015).
Schweins’ focus remained on television though: among other roles, she was part of the cast of "Die Rache der Wanderhure" ("The Revenge of the Whore", 2012) and played leading roles in the romantic comedy "Sommer in Rom" (2013) and the social comedy "Zaun an Zaun" ("Picket Fences", 2017). In the docudrama "Die Hälfte der Welt gehört uns – Als Frauen das Wahlrecht erkämpften" ("Half the World Belongs to Us – When Women Fought for the Right to Vote", 2018), she portrayed the British suffragist Emmeline Pankhurst. Furthermore, Schweins took on guest roles in various TV series such as "Tatort," "Das Traumhotel," "Inga Lindström," and "Wilsberg."
On the big screen, she appeared in smaller roles in the comedies "Rate Your Date" (2019), "Lucy ist jetzt Gangster" ("Lucy Wanted", 2021), and "Caveman" (2021), though the latter two were not released in theaters until 2023.
Starting in 2020, she took on a recurring supporting role as a prosecutor in the series "Die Kanzlei." At the same time, from 2020 to 2024, she was part of the main cast of the crime series "Blutige Anfänger" ("Bloody Beginners") as the dean of a police academy.