Michael Wittenborn was born in Bielefeld on May 31 1953. He studied acting at the Otto-Falckenberg-Schule in Munich and subsequently performed at the Wuppertaler Bühnen, the Staatstheater Hamburg and at the Theater Basel. Between 1993 and 2000, he was a company player at the Deutsche Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, followed by stints at the Münchner Kammerspiele (until 2004) and the Burgtheater in Vienna (until 2007). From 2007 until 2013, Wittenborn was a company player at the Schauspiel in Cologne, before returning to the Deutsche Schauspielhaus in 2013.

In addition to his stage career, Wittenborn has been appearing in TV and movie productions since the early 1980s. He guest-starred in several TV shows and miniseries like "Der große Bellheim" and "Der Schattenmann". He also had a recurring role in the popular crime drama "Der Dicke" and starred opposite Martina Gedeck in the acclaimed TV comedy "Halbe Hundert" (2012).

On the big screen, he played supporting roles in "Ein Freund von mir" (A Friend Of Mine", 2006), Christian Petzold's "Yella" (2007) and Andres Veiel's "Wer wenn nicht wir" ("If Not Us, Who", 2011). 2014 was a busy film year for Wittenborn, who appeared in Dominik Graf's period piece "Die geliebten Schwestern" ("Beloved Sisters"), Benjamin Heisenberg's "Über-Ich und Du" ("Superegos") and "Stromberg – Der Film". The same year also saw him co-starring with Heiner Lauterbach and Gisela Schneeberger in the comedy "Wir sind die Neuen". For this role, Wittenborn received the German Actor Award in 2015.  

On television, Wittenborn was part of the ensemble as an unfaithful partner in the experimental comedy "Wellness für Paare" (2016) and the Houellebecq adaptation "Unterwerfung" (2018); he had a leading role as an unconventional youth welfare worker in "Der Polizist, der Mörder und das Kind" (2017); in the family drama "Auf dem Grund" ("At the Bottom", 2019) as the father of a dysfunctional family; and in "Irgendwann ist auch mal gut" (2020) as a pensioner who wants to carry out a planned suicide with his wife. For his portrayal of a dementia patient in the tragicomic family series "Merz gegen Merz" (2019-2021), Wittenborn received the German Television Academy Award in the category "Actor in a Supporting Role".  

Wittenborn has also appeared in several distinctive roles on the big screen: He played Sandra Hueller's boss in the international success "Toni Erdmann" (2016), the depressed roommate of an old punk in the comedy "Happy Burnout" (2017), a sought-after Tantra teacher in "Wie gut ist deine Beziehung?" (2019), and the conservative father of a young left-wing activist in Julia von Heinz's "Und morgen die ganze Welt" ("And Tomorrow the Entire World", 2020). He played a German secret service agent in the political satire "Curveball - Wir machen die Wahrheit" ("Curveball", 2020), and Dominik Graf cast Wittenborn as the legal advisor and bon vivant Labude in "Fabian oder Der Gang vor die Hunde" ("Fabian - Going to the Dogs", 2021). He had a leading role in "Die Geschichte einer Familie" ("Crash", 2022), about a father and his grown-up daughter (Anna Maria Mühe) who have to come to terms with their past years later.