David Kross

David Kross (born 4 July 1990) is a German actor. He began his career at a young age with a small role in the 2002 film Hilfe, ich bin ein Junge and worked sporadically, mainly focusing on his school work. In 2008 he won the starring role of Michael Berg in critically acclaimed film The Reader. For his part, he was nominated for various awards and went on to win the Sierra Award at the Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards for Youth in Film. Kross has since worked in both German and English speaking film roles, his most recent being War Horse, which was directed by Steven Spielberg and Into the White in which he portrayed Josef Auchtor. --- Kross was born in Henstedt-Ulzburg, 20 miles north of Hamburg. He grew up in Bargteheide, where he attended Eckhorst High School until 2007. He has two brothers and one sister. He played basketball at the professional TSV between 2004 and 2006. His career started with a small appearance in the 2002 film Hilfe, ich bin ein Junge (English: Help, I'm a Boy!). In December 2003, he joined Blaues Wölkchen, a small group from a children's theatre in Bargteheide. His first major theatrical appearance was in Auftritt in Kirsten Martensens Inszenierung Von Hilfe. In 2005, Kross came to the attention of Detlev Buck through his daughter Bernadette, and auditioned for Tough Enough; Buck hired Kross to play the lead, a 15-year-old boy who moves with his mother from a rich neighborhood of Berlin (Zehlendorf) to the Neukoelln area, known at the time for its high number of Turkish immigrants and high crime level. Kross not only won praise at Berlinale in 2006, but also won Best Actor in Nuremberg at the 11th Filmfestival Deutschland/Tuerkei. In September 2007, The Reader began shooting in Berlin, Cologne, and Gorlitz. In Stephen Daldry's adaption of the best-selling novel by Bernhard Schlink, Kross plays the lead role of Michael Berg, opposite Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes and Bruno Ganz. He had to learn to speak English to appear in the film. The world premiere was at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York on 3 December 2008. The film was presented in the 2009 Berlinale but did not compete. In May 2009, Kross was honored for his performance in The Reader at the 62nd Cannes Festival, winning the Chopard trophy. Kross was nominated for an European Film Award as best actor. --- In 2009, Kross started a three-year course of studies at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). His plan was to improve his acting skills and his English. However he dropped out at the end of the same year due to the fact he wanted to concentrate on films. Since then, he has been living in Berlin-Mitte. Kross has expressed no desire to move to Hollywood, preferring to reside in Germany and continue making both German and English language films.