The actor Dimitrij Schaad (“The Kangaroo Chronicles”, “Kleo”) received the Ulrich Wildgruber Prize on Saturday in Hamburg’s St. Pauli Theater. In each of his roles, he would be characterized by “great charm and clever mischievousness,” according to the jury’s statement. “He prefers to speak in his own words than with borrowed poetry. And in what is often a humorless cultural scene, he shows with each of his performances that fun and entertainment go very well with a clear political stance.”
Schaad was born in Kazakhstan in 1985. He was on stage at the Munich Kammerspiele and in Essen, was engaged at the Schauspielhaus Bochum from 2010 to 2013 and later belonged to the ensemble of the Berlin Gorki Theater.
He played the main role in the cinema adaptations of Marc-Uwe Kling’s “Kangaroo Chronicles”. Schaad was seen on television in the ARD “Tatort” and “Polizeiruf 110” and in the series “Das Boot” on Sky. In the Netflix series “Kleo” he played the male lead alongside Jella Haase.
The award is endowed with 10,000 euros and is intended to commemorate one of the most extraordinary actors of German post-war theater and to promote actors who have attracted attention in the media, film and theater in a special way. Previous winners have included Alexander Scheer, Lina Beckmann and Lilith Stangenberg.
