Jannik Schümann

Jannik Schümann (; born 22 July 1992) is a German actor. He received three Jupiter Awards for Best Actor, for his role of Danny in Close to the Horizon, 9 Days Awake (2021), and the role of Franz Joseph I in Sisi (2022). He is also known for his role in The Aftermath (2019), Center of My World (2016), Die Diplomatin (2016–2023), Monster Hunter (2020), Tribes of Europa (2021), or Charité at War (2019).

Early life Schümann was born in Hamburg, where he grew up with two older brothers in the rural quarter Kirchwerder in the Bergedorf borough. As a child, Schümann took an interest in dancing and playing the piano, which earned him the role of young Mozart in the German premiere of the Little Mozart musical at the Neuer Flora theater in Hamburg when he was 9 years old. When he was 15, he was cast in the two-part film Das Glück am anderen Ende der Welt. Throughout his teenage years, he appeared in TV series, films, theater, radio dramas, and also dubbed characters in cartoon films.

Schümann rose to prominence in 2011 at the age of 17 in a supporting role in , a cyberbullying drama, where he portrayed Henry who cyberbullies a classmate, the main character portrayed by Jonas Nay, into committing suicide. The film received critical acclaim, winning numerous awards including the Deutscher Fernsehpreis for Best TV film. Schümann's performance earned him the New Faces Award nomination for Best Young Actor. In the following year, he was cast in a supporting role in Barbara as well as in Mittlere Reife, where he portrayed a young drug dealer, for which he was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the Hessischer Fernsehpreis 2012, along with the ensemble cast. In 2016, he starred as the love interest of Louis Hofmann in Center of My World, a gay coming-of-age drama dubbed by The Hollywood Reporter as "a beguiling teen romance", while described by The Guardian as "genuinely cute". The film received a 100% rating by film critics on Rotten Tomatoes, as well as numerous international awards and nominations. It is an adaptation of Andreas Steinhöfel’s award-winning eponymous young adult novel.

In 2017, Schümann was cast as the lead in the critically acclaimed dystopian drama , opposite of Jannis Niewöhner. In the same year, he was cast as Albrecht von Schlacht in the comedy High Society. In 2019, he appeared alongside Keira Knightley in the British historical drama The Aftermath, as well as in the second season of drama series Charité, distributed by Netflix. The story is set in the hospital Charité in Berlin during the Second World War. Schümann portrays Otto, the main character's brother, a homosexual student of medicine who opposes the Nazi regime. After serving his military duty, he returns from war to work in the hospital, where he falls in love with Martin. They keep their affair a secret in fear of Martin being sent to a concentration camp over Paragraph 175, a German law that made homosexual acts a crime.

In 2019, the romantic drama Close to the Horizon was released, with Schümann in the leading role. He portrayed model and kickboxer Danny Taylor, a survivor of severe child sexual abuse who was infected with HIV by his father. The film is an adaptation of Jessica Koch's best-selling book about her real life relationship with Danny Taylor. The film follows Jessica, played by Luna Wedler, trying to navigate a relationship with a severe childhood trauma survivor who is HIV positive in a time when there was no effective antiretroviral medication to prevent the HIV infection from developing into an AIDS diagnosis. Schümann's performance earned him his first Jupiter Award for Best Actor.

Activism and other ventures On 26 December 2020, Schümann published a photo on Instagram with his partner Felix Kruck, a move interpreted by the international media outlets as his public coming out as gay. In 2021, Schümann criticized the coming out narrative and explained that he had never made a secret of his homosexuality, stating that he only published the photo of his partner "as a signal of support for the LGBTQ community. In February 2021, he was one of 185 actors who signed the #ActOut Manifesto, an initiative by queer German actors to achieve visibility and diversity in film and theater.

On the International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27th, 2023, he gave a speech in the German Parliament officially commemorating the LGBTQ victims of the Nazi regime for the first time in the country's history.

Personal life Schümann has studied English Studies and Media Studies at Humboldt University of Berlin. He wrote his bachelor thesis on queer-coding in Disney films. His father and two brothers are bricklayers. He lives with his fiancé Felix Kruck in Berlin.

Filmography Year Title Role Notes 2003 Die Rettungsflieger Torben Episode: Rivalen im Cockpit 2007 Tatort Felix Freiberg Episode: Liebeshunger 2007 Lukas Holländer TV movie 2009 Stubbe – Von Fall zu Fall Sebastian Engelhardt Episode: Im toten Winkel 2009 Die Pfefferkörner Max TV series, 4 episodes 2010 Kommissarin Lucas Moritz Schreiner Episode: Wenn alles zerbricht 2010 SOKO Wismar Timo Bronnert Episode: Die Prophezeiung 2010 Garmischer Bergspitzen Heiko Sailer TV movie 2010 A gURLs wURLd Nicholas/Nicolas TV series 2011 Notruf Hafenkante Jan Wörner Episode: Eltern – nein, danke! 2011 Henry TV movie 2011 The Old Fox Leon Tiefensee Episode: Schleichendes Gift 2011 Küstenwache Sören Gutbrodt Episode: Verlorene Unschuld 2012 Ferngesteuert Maik Short 2012 Barbara Mario 2012 Tim Seifert TV movie 2012 Cologne P.D. Manuel Fink Episode: Mord nach Schulschluss 2012 Polizeiruf 110 Jan Gottsched Episode: Eine andere Welt 2013 Der Lehrer Roman Wittmann Episode: Ich hab' ja gesagt, ich bin Lehrer 2013 Tommy Freisinger TV movie 2013 Lotta & die frohe Zukunft Ben TV movie 2013 Alev El Quamar 2013 Heiter bis tödlich: Morden im Norden Tim Landscheid Episode: Über Bord 2013 Tatort Konstantin Auerbach Episode: Gegen den Kopf 2013 Bella Block Felix Larson Episode: Angeklagt 2014 Katie Fforde Thomas Franklin Episode: Das Meer in dir 2014 Sechs auf einen Streich Gustav Episode: Die drei Federn 2015 Schuld nach Ferdinand von Schirach Lukas Episode: Die Illuminaten 2015 Die kalte Wahrheit Thomas TV movie 2015 Mein Sohn Helen Finn Wilke/Helen Wilke TV movie 2015 Großstadtrevier Episode: Geborene Verlierer 2016 Die Hebamme II Anton TV movie 2016 Alarm für Cobra 11 – Die Autobahnpolizei Martin Gruber Episode: Tödlicher Profit 2016 Die Diplomatin Nikolaus Tanz 2 episodes 2016 Center of My World Nicholas 2016 Tim 2017 Titus 2017 High Society Albrecht von Schlacht TV movie 2019 Close to the Horizon Danny Taylor TV movie 2019 The Aftermath Albert 2019 Charité at War Otto MarquardtTV series 2019 Your Color Karl Original title: Deine Farbe 2020 Monster Hunter Aiden 2021 Tribes of Europa Dewiat TV series

Awards 2012: Nomination for the New Faces Award for Homevideo (Best young actor) 2012: Hessischer Fernsehpreis special award of the jury for Mittlere Reife (together with Isabel Bongard, Sonja Gerhardt, Vincent Redetzki, Anton Rubtsov) 2016: Askania Award (Shooting-Star-Award) 2020: Jupiter Award – Best National Actor 2020: GQ Care Award – Best Look 2021: Jupiter Award – Best National Actor 2022: Jupiter Award – Best National Actor