Gustav-Peter Wöhler, born July 31, 1956, initially wanted to become a social education worker but instead changed his plans and went to drama school at Westfälische Schauspielschule in Bochum. Although he was at first rather frustrated with his mainly comedic parts in theatre plays, he started to come at ease with this predetermination after famous theatre director Peter Zadek told him that he had never seen a funnier performance than Wöhler's. Indeed, Wöhler"s bulky appearance and his seemingly canny, yet melancholic, charisma almost predestine him for his signature part of the introvert average citizen who copes with his life with gentle humour.

Wöhler made his movie debut in 1991 in Tevfik Baser's migration drama "Lebewohl, Fremde" and later appeared in striking parts in TV series such as "Bella Block", "Großstadtrevier" oder "Alles außer Mord". In "Alles außer Mord", Wöhler played the investigator Horst Weinstein. From the end of the 1990s on, Wöhler returned to the movie screen and worked with several of the most renowned directors of German cinema: Wöhler, for instance, starred in Hans-Christoph Blumenberg's "Planet der Kannibalen" ("Planet of the Cannibals"), Werner Herzog's "Invincible", and Doris Dörrie's "Erleuchtung garantiert" ("Enlightenment Guaranteed").

At the same time, Wöhler also appears regularly in the films of upcoming young directors, for example in Sebastian Schipper's "Absolute Giganten" ("Gigantic"), and in Neele Leana Vollmar's tranquil comedy "Urlaub vom Leben" ("Holiday From Life"). Besides acting, Gustav-Peter Wöhler also has a passion for music. In 1995, he formed the "Gustav Peter Wöhler Band" with three other musicians. The band has released one record and sporadically tours small clubs all over Germany.