Laura Tonke

Acting

Laura Tonke

Born 1974-04-14 · West Berlin, West Germany

Laura Maori Tonke (born April 14, 1974, in West Berlin) is a German actress. Laura Tonke is the daughter of film set decorator Michael Tonke. She studied theater studies in Berlin until 1996. At the age of 17, she made her on-screen debut in Michael Klier's feature film *Ostkreuz*. Numerous roles in feature films and television movies followed. Additionally, she is booked as a model for lifestyle and fashion magazines. Since the spring of 2007, she has performed on stage in productions by the theater collective Gob Squad at Berlin's Volksbühne (and the Volksbühne im Prater), as well as at other theaters. In 2000, Tonke was awarded the Lilli Palmer Memorial Camera for Best Young Actress. In 2003, she was nominated for the German Film Award for her portrayal of Gudrun Ensslin in Christopher Roth's feature film *Baader*. In the tragicomedy *Hedi Schneider steckt fest* (Hedi Schneider Is Stuck) by Sonja Heiss—which premiered at the 2015 Berlinale—she plays the title character, a woman plagued by sudden anxiety attacks. Her performance garnered enthusiastic reviews; *Der Spiegel*, for instance, wrote: "She inhabits the role of Hedi Schneider [...] so convincingly and perfectly—as if it had been written specifically for her." At the 2016 German Film Awards ceremony, Tonke received a double honor. She won in both the Best Actress category for her role in *Hedi Schneider steckt fest* and the Best Supporting Actress category for the film *Mängelexemplar* (2016). Laura Tonke lives in Berlin and has a son.

Acting credits

Amrum poster
7.2

On Amrum Island in spring 1945, twelve-year-old Nanning hunts seals, fishes at night, and works the fields to help feed his family. When the war ends, his mother sinks into depression, and he must navigate new conflicts while struggling to find his own path.

Amrum

2025

Caveman poster
5.6

Robert Müller has wanted to be a comedian since he was a kid, but he's only made it as a car salesman so far. This is about to change when he takes part in an open-mic show. He puts the program together with his imaginary friend, the stone-age Caveman. Then his girlfriend Claudia breaks up with him...

Caveman

2023

Bedways poster
4.6

A huge, run-down apartment in Berlin Mitte. Two women and a man, rehearsals for a movie about love and sex, that will never be shot. Acting and reality mingle into a dangerous mélange.

Bedways

2010

99€ Films poster
6.0

Anyone can hold a mini-DV camera. Anyone can get 99 euros in credit. And everyone has already written a five-minute story in school. So everyone is actually prepared to make a 99euro-film. but "99euro-films" is more. It is the proof that German films can also be wild, new, modern, funny, political and entertaining. And all that in 80 minutes. 12 young German filmmakers come together, inspire exciting young actors and go: have an idea and simply film it. Just do it and be independent.

99€ Films

2001

Too Hard to Handle poster
5.6

It's no surprise when Karo is fired. She is loud, over-emotional and egocentric, more so than the average Berliner wise-ass, says her best friend Anna. Karo is not one to give up easily, though: she opts for radical change and goes into therapy. Although her therapist advises her to keep calm, Karo throws herself into it.

Too Hard to Handle

2016

Ach, diese Lücke, diese entsetzliche Lücke poster
7.6

Twenty-year-old Joachim is unexpectedly accepted at drama school in Munich and moves into his grandparents' upper-class villa. From then on, he tries to find his identity as a young man between the world of theater and the everyday life of his eccentric grandparents.

Ach, diese Lücke, diese entsetzliche Lücke

2026

Jupiter poster
6.1

A teenage girl's family falls for a cosmic cult promising salvation in a higher existence on Jupiter. As flashbacks leading deeper into the past unravel the family's struggle to get a hold on life, the girl has to decide if to follow her parents or to make her own way on earth.

Jupiter

2023

22 Lengths poster
6.7

Tilda's days are strictly structured: she studies, works at the supermarket checkout and looks after her little sister Ida - on some days she also has to look after her alcoholic mother. But this summer brings a change: Tilda receives a promising job offer for a doctorate in Berlin. Viktor also turns up, who, like her, always swims 22 laps in the swimming pool. When Tilda begins to believe that everything could be better, the situation at home spirals out of control.

22 Lengths

2025

Maret poster
5.4

After losing part of her memory, Maret, 44, sets out to find out who she used to be. She learns about the many different life paths she followed, in none of which anything was ever really achieved. A profoundly unhappy person in a never-ending, headlong rush. A doctor on the island of Lanzarote offers to put this restlessness to an end through brain surgery. A promise of peace and satisfaction. Will Maret proceed with the surgery that would take away part of her being - or not?

Maret

2023

No artwork available
NR

After her alcoholic mother’s suicide, Ida - traumatized and plagued by guilt - flees her hometown and ends up on the island of Rügen. There, she begins an intense healing process marked by a fresh start, an unexpected friendship, and her first great love.

Windstärke 17

Sunday Girls poster
8.0

'Sunday Girls' is a portrait of four young German actresses: Laura Tonke, Nicolette Krebitz, Katharina Schuettler and Inga Birkenfeld. They are members of a new group of young actresses who try to put their passion for films into practice, away from the mainstream TV market. Their individuality and their will to remain independent is what makes them so interesting... their luck, their fears, their goals, the things that life is made up of... "Of course I'm a little in love with them, that's how all films start." (director RP Kahl)

Sunday Girls

2006

A E I O U – A Quick Alphabet of Love poster
4.9

Anna is 60 and her acting heyday is now behind her. She lives on her own but has a friend and confidant in her downstairs neighbour Michel, who is also single. Reluctantly, Anna accepts a job as a language coach for 17-year-old Adrian who has a speech impediment and is something of a misfit. She recognises him as the boy who recently snatched her handbag in the street.

A E I O U – A Quick Alphabet of Love

2022

Everything's Fifty Fifty poster
6.4

Marion and Andi thought they were happily divorced until their old love unexpectedly reignites during a family vacation with their son Milan.

Everything's Fifty Fifty

2024

No artwork available
NR

A man who has problems meeting women visits his psychiatrist.

Zwei Goldfische

2007

The People vs. Fritz Bauer poster
6.8

It is the late 1950s. Flourishing under the economic miracle, Germany grows increasingly apathetic about confronting the horrors of its recent past. Nevertheless, Fritz Bauer doggedly devotes his energies to bringing the Third Reich to justice. One day Bauer receives a letter from Argentina, written by a man who is certain that his daughter is dating the son of Adolph Eichmann. Excited by the promising lead, and mistrustful of a corrupt judiciary system where Nazis still lurk, Bauer journeys to Jerusalem to seek alliance with Mossad, the Israeli secret service. To do so is treason — yet committing treason is the only way Bauer can serve his country.

The People vs. Fritz Bauer

2015

Mrs Winkler Leaves the House poster
NR

In 2030, retired actress Mrs. Winkler lives bitterly and marked by pain. When her daughter Emi accepts a theater offer, a care robot named Pavlovich takes over the care of her mother. Unexpectedly, his knowledge of classical plays seems to reawaken Mrs. Winkler's will to live...

Mrs Winkler Leaves the House

2026

Silvester Countdown poster
4.0

A young Berlin couple travel to a friend's place for the celebration of Silvester and New Year's Eve. During that period, we witness today's juvenile sub-culture, especially the ways of keeping a partnership - or breaking it up in between.

Silvester Countdown

1998

Baader poster
3.7

Andreas Baader starts out as a small-time criminal. In Berlin, he is recruited by a revolutionary cell. They plan to overthrow the state.

Baader

2002

Axolotl Overkill poster
5.0

Mifti is a teenager as beautiful as she is reckless. Mentally unstable, fed up with her dysfunctional family, oblivious to the youthful world, and aware of the sexual magnetism she gives off with her peculiar appearance, she wanders through the dark path of several bohemian adults with questionable lifestyles.

Axolotl Overkill

2017

Herz poster
4.3

No synopsis available yet.

Herz

2001

TKKG poster
5.2

When Willi's father is abducted and is only released for a valuable statue from his art collection, Tim is the only one who believes Willi that the police are on the wrong track. Together with the smart policeman's daughter Gaby and the highly intelligent outsider Karl, they start to investigate on their own. Against all odds the four discover a conspiracy. In the course of their first big detective adventure they grow together into a committed community, and so Tim, Klöschen, Karl and Gaby become the band TKKG.

TKKG

2019

Der Pirat poster
8.5

Hamburg, end of the 1960s: occasional pothead Jan, also known as "the pirate", makes a career for himself in the local drug scene. He quickly becomes the "hash prince of Hamburg". But when he starts dealing heroin, he also draws his brother Ludwig into his dark business...

Der Pirat

1998

No artwork available
NR

Amidst sweating attacks, sex escapades, existential fears and the unsuccessful fight against the signs of the times, four women search for happiness and find themselves.

Komplizinnen - Vernunft ist keine Lösung

2027

Long Story Short poster
7.4

A group of close friends celebrate parties over an extended period of time. They experience a lot of fun together, but also tragic moments that prove that love and friendship are the most important gifts of all our lives.

Long Story Short

2025