Biography
Pablo Ben Yakov was born on 30 March 1986 in Saarbrücken; his mother is the actress and comedian Alice Hoffmann. He made his acting debut at the age of nine in the seven-part children's TV crime series "Hart an der Grenze" (1996), in which he played the main character's younger brother. Over the next years he starred in a number of short movies and had guest roles in TV series. He played a minor supporting role in the comedy "Alles Bob!" ("All About Bob") and Anna Justice cast him in "Der Sommer mit Boiler" in the title role of a quirky outsider. In "Kleine Diebe" (2000), an episode of the popular German crime series 'Tatort', he had a leading role as a Romanian street boy. He also had leading roles (each as a son) in the comedy "Sieben Tage im Paradies" (2001, TV) and in Jan Bonny’s family drama "Gegenüber" ("Counterparts", 2007).
From 2011 on Pablo Ben Yakov also began to work as an editor. He was responsible for editing several short feature and documentary films as well as the long documentary "The Teacher's Country" (2013). For his work on the eight-minute documentary "Guter Boden" (2013), he was awarded the Filmplus Festival's Editing Prize and the Hot Docs Canadian Documentary Festival's Best Editing Prize.
As an actor, Ben Yakov then also guest starred in various TV series, including "SOKO Köln", "Der Alte", "Heldt" and "Tatort".
Pablo Ben Yakov made his directorial debut with the documentary "Lord of the Toys" (2018), about the YouTuber and influencer Max "Adlersson" Herzberg from Dresden, who glorifies violence and expresses right-wing views. At the festival DOK Leipzig 2018 the film, controversial because of its supposedly neutral and distanced attitude, won the main prize, the 'Golden Dove'. The film was theatrically released in May 2019.
In directorial collaboration with André Krummel, who worked on "Lord of the Toys" as cinematographer, co-writer and co-editor, Ben Yakov made the documentary "Goldhammer" (2022), a portrait of Marcel Goldammer, a former gay sex worker who now wants to make a career as a populist politician. The film premiered at the Max Ophüls Preis Film Festival in January 2023 and was released theatrically the following May.