Verena Altenberger

Verena Altenberger

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Verena Altenberger

Verena Altenberger grew up in Salzburg, Austria. After turning 18, she moved to Vienna and studied Journalism and Communication Studies at the University of Vienna. After her Bachelor degree she studied Acting at the Music and Arts University of Vienna from which she graduated in 2015.


In her youth Verena Altenberger was an avid gymnast and dancer. She participated in competitions for years, danced in opera productions at the Salzburg Festival and also worked as a choreographer.

Altenberger played the lead role in Alice in Wonderland, acted as Blanche Barrow in Bonny and Clyde and as Isolde Weißhand in Tricky Love – Tristan und Isolde as a member of the Young Burg Ensemble at the Vienna Burgtheater in 2010/11. In 2013/14 she played the role of Lore in Puss in Boots at the Vienna Burgtheater. In 2015 she returned to stage as Rozí in Haben at the Vienna Volkstheater.


Verena Altenberger made her cinematic screen debut in academy award winner Stefan Ruzowitzky’s thriller Cold Hell in 2016.

She then had her acting breakthrough as a heroin addict mother in Adrian Goiginger’s drama The best of all worlds in 2017. The Austrian movie had its world premiere at the Berlinale and there won the Kompass Perspektive Prize. Verena Altenberger won multiple international awards as Best Actress, e.g. the Austrian Film Award, the Bavarian Film Award, the Award as Best Actress at the International Film Festival in Moscow and several Film Festivals in the USA.

Roles in Urs Egger’s Shillings from Heaven, Gabriela Zerhau’s Secret in the Mountain and Viviane Andereggen’s Defamed followed.

In 2020, Verena Altenberger reunited with director Adrian Goiginger for his second movie Märzengrund. Release date is planned for the end of 2021.


The shooting of the following movies are completed too: Hans Steinbichler‘s Coming-of-Age tragicomedy Hannes, David Clay Diaz’s refugee drama Me, We and Helena Hufnagel’s comedy Generation Beziehungsunfähig. All cinema releases are planned for 2021.

Altenberger will be on the screen again in the role of social worker Rebecca in Magenta TV streaming’s series Wild Republic as of March 2021. Shooting was done in Cologne and the Italian Dolomites from February until October 2020. Directors were Markus Goller and Lennart Ruff.


Magda macht das schon’s fourth and final season will be aired on RTL in early 2021. Verena Altenberger has had quite some rating success on German TV in the lead role of Magda. The sitcom won the German Television Prize in 2018 and was nominated several times for the German Comedy Prize and the international Rose D’Or.

Verena Altenberger premiered with David Schalko’s remake of the Fritz Lang classic M – A city hunts a murderer at the Berlinale 2019. Afterwards, the miniseries was aired on TV Now and ORF. It was nominated for the Grimme Prize in 2020.


Altenberger plays the role of detective Elisabeth Eyckhoff in the renowned Munich Polizeiruf 110 since 2019. Her first case Der Ort von dem die Wolken kommen was also nominated for the Grimme Prize. It is planned to shoot two TV movies per year for the series. The next movie is planned to be aired in fall 2021.


Verena Altenberger speaks German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish and Turkish. She lives in Vienna, Austria.

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