Manuel Santos Gelke, who grew up in Berlin, took part in a casting for the children's film "Benjamin Blümchen" in 2017 at the age of eleven - and was promptly cast by director Tim Trachte in the leading role of Otto. In autumn 2018, the 13-year-old stood in front of the camera for another children's film: In "TKKG" he played the clever outsider Karl, who belongs to the titular clique of hobby detectives. Both "TKKG" and "Benjamin Blümchen" were released in cinemas in 2019.