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Maren Kroymann was born on July 19, 1949, in Walsrode. From 1967 on, she studied British, American, and Romance language and literature in Tubingen. There, she became a part of the feminist movement and started to perform on stage. In 1971, she moved to Berlin and joined among others the politically committed and satirical Hanns-Eisler-Chor. From 1982 to 1986, Kroymann successfully toured Germany with her solo show "Auf du und du mit Stöckelschuh", a satirical, but careful interpretation of 1950s German pop songs. Following this success, Kroymann played leading roles in the TV series "Oh Gott, Herr Pfarrer" (1988-1989) and "Vera Wesskamp" (1992). But despite her success with several other TV series and TV movies, Kroymann always stuck to political satire. She appeared regularly in political satire shows such as "Scheibenwischer" and "Jonas" and even had her own show, "Nachtschwester Kroymann", from 1993 to 1997.
In 1993, Kroymann made her movie debut in the comedy film "Kein Pardon" with Hape Kerkeling. In the following years, Kroymann starred in several other successful comedy movies. Following small yet memorable turns in Sönke Wortmann's comedies "Das Superweib" ("The Super-Wife", 1996) and "Der Campus" (1998), Kroymann joined the ensemble of Hape Kerkeling's TV sitcom "Gisbert". In contrast to this, she played a police detective in the award-winning TV thriller "Schande" (1999).
After starring in the TV tragicomedy "Durch dick und dünn" (2001), Kroymann became one of the leads of the TV series "Mein Leben & ich" and stayed with the show until 2009. In addition to this, she appeared in the TV production "Der Preis der Wahrheit" (2003), the "Tatort" entries "Bienzle und das Doppelspiel" (2000) and "Bienzle und der steinerne Gast" (2004), and the comedy "Nicht ohne meine Schwiegereltern" (2006).
But with her leading part in Angelina Maccarone's award-winning drama "Verfolgt" ("Hounded"), Maren Kroymann finally proves her dramatic talent as a probation officer who engages in an "amour fou" with delinquent (Kostja Ullmann) who is 30 years younger than her. Her perfomance won Kroymann the German Film Critics Award.
She next played a school headmaster in Dennis Gansel's acclaimed drama "Die Welle"("The Wave", 2008), had a small but crucial supporting role in "Das Fremde in mir" ("The Stranger in Me"), and was part of the ensemble cast of "Umdeinleben" ("Life Time Short", 2008). Kroymann then played the mother-in-law of Christina Ulmen's character in the 2009 bestseller adaptation "Maria, ihm schmeckt's nicht!" ("Maria, He Doesn't Like It!", 2009), and rejoined Hape Kerkeling for the comedy "Horst Schlämmer – Isch kandidiere!" (2009).
Kroymann played the mean-spirited boss of a hairdressing salon in Doris Dörrie's "Die Friseuse" ("The Hairdresser", 2010), and the gynecologist of four teachers hitting menopause in the award-winning miniseries "Klimawechsel" (2010, TV). From 2011 to 2012, she also had a recurring role in the TV crime drama "Flemming". On the big screen, she had supporting roles in Helmut Dietl's satire "Zettl" (2012), the romance "Halbschatten" ("Everyday Objects") and the coming-out drama "Freier Fall" ("Free Fall", 2013).
Maren Kroymann continued to work primarily on TV, where she starred in the comedies "Seitensprung" (2014); "Zu mir oder zu dir?" (2014) and "Winnetous Weiber" (2014). Moreover, she appeared in the TV drama Zweimal lebenslänglich" (2015) and had a recurring role in the 2015 TV series "Eichwald, MdB".
After playing a therapist in the theatrical release "Mängelexemplar" ("Too Hard To Handle", 2016), she reprised her role from "Maria, ihm schmeckt's nicht!" ("Maria, He Doesn't Like It!", 2009) for the sequel "Antonio, ihm schmeckt's nicht" ("Antonio in Wonderland", 2016).
In 2016 and 2017, she appeared in front of the camera for "Wendy - Der Film" ("Wendy") and its sequel "Wendy 2 - Freundschaft für immer" ("Wendy") as the grandmother of the young protagonist, before taking on a supporting role in the film based on Hape Kerkeling's autobiography "Der Junge muss an die Luft" ("All About Me", 2018, directed by Caroline Link). She starred alongside Barbara Sukowa and Heiner Lauterbach in the comedy "Enkel für Anfänger" ("Granny Nanny", 2019) as a retiree who applies to an agency as a granny for hire and whose everyday life is soon thoroughly shaken up as a result, a role she also reprised in the sequel "Enkel für Fortgeschrittene" (2023). In between, she appeared in Anika Decker's feature film "Liebesdings" ("Love Thing", 2021) as the oldest member of a small, dedicated LGBTIQ+ comedy troupe whose feminist "Theater 3000" is on the verge of financial ruin. She also narrated two documentaries about women writers, "Loving Highsmith" (2021) and "Elfriede Jelinek - Die Sprache von der Leine lassen" ("Elfriede Jelinek - Language Unleashed", 2022).
A few years earlier, in 2017, she launched her feminist satire show "Kroymann" on ARD, for which she received several awards, including the German Academy of Television Entertainment in 2018, the Bavarian Television Award and the German Television Award in 2019, as well as a Grimme Award in each of the two years.
In addition to her work as an actress and satirist, she has been touring German-speaking countries as a singer with critically and commercially successful stage programs such as "Gebrauchte Lieder" and "In My Sixties". As in her satirical TV shows, Kroymann also explores social conventions and changes from a feminist perspective in her stage shows. She has also read and recorded audio books, including Toni Morrison's "A Mercy," Amy Tan's novel "Daughters of Heaven," and "Memoirs of a Girl" by Annie Ernaux.
In February 2021, Maren Kroymann, who had already outed herself as a lesbian in Stern magazine in 1993, was one of 185 lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, non-binary and trans* signatories of the manifesto and mass coming-out #actout in the magazine of the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Initiated by Karin Hanczewski, Godehard Giese and Eva Meckbach, the initiative took a stand against discrimination and called for more visibility and diversity in the theater, film and television industries.
Over the years, Kroymann has received numerous awards for her artistic and social commitment. She was awarded the Prix Pantheon's "Reif und bekloppt" prize in 2014, the Baden-Württemberg Kleinkunstpreis in 2015, the European Broadcasting Union's "Rose d'Or - Lifetime Achievement Award" in 2019, and the Carl Zuckmayer Medal of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate in 2020.