Bernadette Heerwagen is a German actress. She began acting at the age of 16, and has since co-starred in the 1999 production Der Schandfleck, for which she was awarded the Bayerischer Fernsehpreis Sonderpreis in 2000. Heerwagen has gone on to star in a variety of leading and supporting roles in German and Austrian television, films, dramas and European cinema. In 2004 her leading performance in Grüße Aus Kaschmir took her to greater prominence within Germany and France. She has twice won Best Actress award at the Adolf-Grimme-Preis, in 2005 and 2008, and has won Best Actress at the Bayerischer Fernsehpreis in 2000. In 2010 she starred in Die Kommenden Tage alongside Daniel Brühl and earned the nomination for Best Leading Actress at the German Film Awards in 2011. Heerwagen has one brother, Philipp Heerwagen, born in 1983, who is a professional soccer player for the German football teamFC Ingolstadt.
Career
Early work
After being cast in a short-film in 1992, Heerwagen was spotted by Portuguese film directorMiguel Alexandre whilst at the Bavaria Film Studios. Alexandre approached Heerwagen, then aged sixteen, and asked her to play the lead role in his new film for German television. Heerwagen accepted and starred in the title role of her debut film Nana for ARD and HFF München. After several roles in television films she then went on to star in the TV film Die Aubergers and in its follow up television series. She also studied acting techniques and drama at Film Breakthrough in Munich. After landing a supporting role in ARD and Bayerischer Rundfunk's television filmLiebe und weitere Katastrophen alongside Senta Berger, Heerwagen was then cast as the co-star in the German television two-part film Der Schandfleck which brought her to much wider notice as an actress in Germany. Heerwagen progressed to feature in a number of television dramas and series, such as SOKO 5113. In 2000 she won the Special Award for her role in the docu-drama Wir sind da! Juden in Deutschland 1945 at the Bavarian TV Awards along with the director and her co-actor.
Television, film and cinema
In 2004 Heerwagen was cast in the central role of Miguel Alexandre's film Grüße aus Kaschmir for ARD and TV-60 Filmproduktion, for which she won the Best Actress award at the Adolf-Grimme-Preis in 2005. Heerwagen went on to feature in several guest appearances in the long running German detective series Tatort, and starred as the female protagonist in the English language British film Joy Division starring alongside Ed Stoppard and Bernard Hill. She played a supporting role in the German filmIch bin die Andere and then went on to win the Adolf-Grimme-Preis for Best Actress for a second time in 2008 for her role in the German television film An die Grenze. She played the central role in Lars Kraume's film Die kommenden Tage in 2010, supported by Daniel Brühl, August Diehl and Johanna Wokalek and was nominated for Best Leading Actress at the Deutscher Filmpreis in 2011.
