Cast
Al-Kharayeb, Libanon

Biography

Hassan Akkouch was born in 1988 in al-Kharayeb in southern Lebanon. In 1990, his family fled to Germany because of the civil war and settled in Berlin-Neukölln. While attending high school in Neukölln, Akkouch says he was involved with a youth gang. At the same time, as a teenager, he discovered his passion for dance. He started taking breakdancing lessons in 2000 and had his first professional performance in 2001 at the age of 13 when Detlef Soost booked him with his group "Blazin Breakers" for the opening of the Neukölln Forum. In the following years, he participated in various performances and dance theater productions, such as "Scratch Neukölln" at the Hebbel am Ufer Theater (2003) and "Back to the Present" at the Schaubühne (2004).

Akkouch and his family were repeatedly threatened with deportation despite their integration and professional success. Deported to Lebanon in April 2003, they returned to Germany six weeks later. Even with a positive recommendation from the Hardship Commission in 2006, they faced deportation again. Several portraits and documentaries about Akkouch and his family have been published. However, the family continued to live in Germany for almost twelve years with a "tolerated" status (Hassan Akkouch has since become a naturalized citizen in Munich).

In the following years, Akkouch continued his dancing career. In 2009 he became a member of the dance group Fanatix and performed in André Heller's Circus Magnifico. At the same time, Akkouch worked as a dance teacher, teaching young people from Berlin's Rütli School in dance and posture. In 2010, he was a protagonist in the highly praised and internationally acclaimed documentary "Neukölln Unlimited," in which filmmakers followed him and his siblings Lial and Maradona for several years.   

At the suggestion of his mother, Akkouch also pursued acting in addition to his dancing. In 2011 and 2012 he appeared in the theater play "Verrücktes Blut" at the Ballhaus Naunynstraße. He made his television debut in 2011 with a leading role in the crime series "Verbrechen nach Ferdinand von Schirach" as the gambling-addicted friend of a murdered medical student.

In September 2012, Akkouch began studying acting at the Otto-Falckenberg-Schule in Munich, graduating in 2015. During this time, he participated in stage productions at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin and at the Münchner Kammerspiele, and took on major roles in various television productions, including four episodes of "Tatort," in which he portrayed suspects, dealers, and other criminal characters. 

After graduating, Akkouch became a permanent member of the Münchner Kammerspiele ensemble for the 2015/16 season. He played roles such as Shylock and Shylock's daughter Jessica in an experimental adaptation of "The Merchant of Venice" (2015), and played a successfully naturalized "model refugee" who dances a traditional Bavarian folk dance in the premiere of Christoph Marthaler's "Tiefer Schweb" (2017). In May 2017, Akkouch was awarded the Förderpreis of the Verein zur Förderung der Münchner Kammerspiele.

He made his feature film debut in 2016 in the Dutch production "Layla M.," which tells the story of a young Muslim woman in Amsterdam who becomes involved in Islamism. His other television roles included an asylum seeker in the crime series "Nachtschicht" (2016) and an Arab prince in the "Tatort" episode "Kleine Prinzen" (2016), which was set in Lucerne. He had a recurring supporting role as a former nurse and asylum seeker in the satirical series "Hindafing" (2017).   

In Stephan Lacant's TV drama "Fremde Tochter" (2017), he played a 19-year-old Muslim Arab who falls in love with a 17-year-old non-Muslim German girl and declares his love for her despite all opposition. For this role he received the Television Film Award of the German Academy of the Performing Arts.   

In the second and third season of the crime series "4 Blocks" (2018-2019), he played a leading role as a member of a criminal clan. From January 2020, he played Detective Chief Inspector Fahri Celik in the crime series "WaPo Berlin".

On the big screen, Hassan Akkouch appeared in Sönke Wortmann's "Contra" (2020) as the wise childhood friend of Nilam Farooq's main character. He was also part of the ensemble in Ronny Trocker's family drama "Der menschliche Faktor" ("The Human Factor", DE/IT/DK 2020) and Katharina Woll's tragicomedy "Alle wollen geliebt werden" ("Everybody Wants To Be Loved ", 2022). He had a leading role in Chris Kraus' "15 Jahre" ("15 Years", 2023), a sequel to Kraus' "Vier Minuten" ("Four Minutes"), portraying a one-armed Syrian who convinces the exceptional pianist Jenny (Hannah Herzsprung) to take part in a talent show for mentally and physically disabled people.

 

Filmography

2022/2023
  • Cast
2020-2022
  • Cast
2020/2021
  • Cast
2020/2021
  • Cast
2019/2020
  • Cast
2018/2019
  • Cast
2017-2019
  • Cast
2016/2017
  • Cast
2015/2016
  • Cast
2015
  • Cast
2013/2014
  • Cast
2009/2010
  • Participation