Diane Kruger, born on July 15, 1976 in Algermissen near Hildesheim as Diane Heidkrüger, started out as a dancer and studied at the Royal Ballet in London but then had to give up her dancing career due to an injury. Back in Germany, she worked successfully as a model before picking up an acting career in 2001. She debuted in the action thriller "The Piano Player" (GB/DE/ES 2003) playing alongside Dennis Hopper and Christopher Lambert. Since that time she has mostly been working in France and the US. The role of Helena in Wolfgang Petersen's "Troy" (US 2004) as well a starring role opposite Nicolas Cage in the adventure film "National Treasure" (US 2004) and in the sequel "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" (US 2007) helped her to achieve international prominence.

Her first film shoot in Germany was the European coproduction "Merry Christmas" (FR/DE/GB/BE/RO 2005), a World War I drama directed by Christian Carion and nominated for an Oscar. She starred as the great love of a tenor who volunteers to go to war in 1914. In the history drama "Copying Beethoven" (US/DE/HU 2006) by Agnieszka Holland, she starred as a music student who accompanies Ludwig van Beethoven in the last months before his death. Subsequently, Kruger played the wife of James Gregory (Joseph Fiennes), the racist prison guard of Nelson Mandela in the Apartheid drama "Goodbye Bafana" (BE/FR/DE/IT/GB/ZA 2007).

In 2007, Diane Kruger hosted the opening event as well as the award ceremony of the 70th Cannes Film Festival. In the ensuing year she was appointed member of the jury at the 58th edition of the Berlin IFF. She played alongside a large cast of German actors in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds" (DE/US 2009). The war drama premiered in the competition at Cannes and was nominated for numerous awards including eight Academy Awards and three Golden Globes (Christoph Waltz won both awards). Her performance as a German actress involved in Hitler's assassination garnered Kruger the "Goldene Kamera" award in the category "Best International Actress".

Kruger next featured in the experimental fantasy romance "Mr. Nobody" (DE/BE/FR/CA 2009) starring Jared Leto. In "Unknown Identity" (US/FR/DE 2011) she played alongside Liam Neeson as Bosnian taxi driver Gina. In the drama "Pieds nus sur les limaces" ("Lily Sometimes", FR 2010) she embodied a woman who moves from Paris to the countryside to take care of her mentally retarded sister after her mother has died.

In the subsequent years, Kruger featured in more French or American productions, among others as Marie Antoinette in "Les adieux à la reine" ("Farewell, My Queen", FR 2012) or as the stepmother of young Abraham Lincoln in "The Better Angels" (US 2014). In "Sky" (FR/DE 2015) by Fabienne Berthaud, she played a young woman who breaks away from her husband while travelling the US and finds herself after an encounter with a mysterious ranger.

Besides her work for the big screen, Kruger has also played roles in several TV series. In 2010, she featured in an episode of the American mystery series "Fringe", before she was cast as Sonny Cross, the lead in the crime series "The Bridge – America" (US 2014). Later she had an important feature part in the crime drama "The Infiltrator" (US 2016) as an FBI agent.

October 2016 marked the start of principal photography for Fatih Akin's drama "Aus dem Nichts" ("In the Fade") which premiered in November 2017. Kruger played the lead in her first German-only speaking role. She received a nomination for the German Film Award and Best Actress awards at the Bavarian Film Awards and at the Satellite Awards in the USA.

In the next few years, Kruger was seen in leading roles in several international (co-)productions: As a woman scarred by life in the thriller "Tout nous sépare" (FR 2017) with Catherine Deneuve, as a villain in the film biography "Welcome to Marwen" (US 2018) and as a Mossad recruit in "The Agent" (DE/IL/FR 2019).