Katharina Leonore Goebel

Katharina Leonore Goebel was born in Rosenheim as the youngest of four siblings and grew up in Prien am Chiemsee. For as long as she can remember, she wanted to be an actress. As a teenager working at the local arthouse cinema, she was fascinated by the big screen and the worlds that opened up to her through this medium. Katharina Leonore Goebel was already acting in theatre during her school days and gained her first experience on stage.

Immediately after school, she appeared in front of the camera for the first time. At the age of 19, she starred in the short film DANIELS ASCHE by director Boris Kunz, who was still studying at the HFF Munich at the time. The film premiered at the 2010 International Hof Film Festival. 

After auditioning at various acting schools, Katharina Leonore Goebel studied acting at the Rostock University of Music and Drama from 2010 - 2014. 

In 2010, she appeared in her first feature film, DAS LEBEN IST EIN BAUERNHOF (Life on a Farm), directed by Thomas Kronthaler. She played the lead role of Kathi, a headstrong high school graduate who is about to graduate and suddenly inherits a farm that she does not want to sell. Katharina Leonore Goebel stood out particularly positively among critics in the film and attracted attention right from her debut.

In 2011, Katharina Leonore Goebel worked with director Boris Kunz again and starred in his feature film DREI STUNDEN (Three Hours), which premiered at the 2013 Munich Film Festival.

In the same year, Katharina Leonore Goebel made her cinema debut in the comedy TRANS BAVARIA (directed by Konstantin Ferstl). The film premiered at the 45th International Hof Film Festival and was awarded the “Bild-Kunst-Preis.” It was nominated for the “Debütbiber” at the 2011 Biberach Film Festival.

From 2014 to 2016, the actress was a permanent member of the ensemble at Theater Heilbronn, where she performed in a variety of classical and contemporary plays, some of which were also in the field of performance and musical theatre. In 2016, she appeared in the performance LIBRARY (directed by Tiago Rodriguez) at the Staatstheater Wiesbaden in cooperation with the Theatro Nacional d. Maria II in Lisbon.

In 2016, she took a leap into the unknown and left the fixed structures of the theatre behind for the time being in order to work as a freelancer and pursue a more diverse artistic career. She co-founded the FLUGWERK group of presenters, which focuses on opening up artistic work processes in the performing arts to the public and conducts ‘open rehearsals’ nationwide in cooperation with production companies and venues. 

In 2018, the actress completed a part-time mediation training course and completed a six-month internship at the Federal Competence Centre for Cultural and Creative Industries. In 2019, Katharina Leonore Goebel began working as a voice artist and recording radio play productions with Audible, Bayerischer Rundfunk and Deutschlandfunk Kultur, among others. She has never completely left the theatre stage as an actress and in recent years has appeared as a guest at the Schauspielhaus Bochum, the Grillo-Theater Essen and the DNT Weimar, as well as in productions by the independent scene in Munich and Berlin.

Katharina Leonore Goebel starred in the acclaimed comedy FRAU STERN (directed by Anatol Schuster) in 2019. The film premiered at the Max Ophüls Film Festival and was awarded ‘Best Feature Film’ at the ‘Achtung Berlin Filmfest’. The short film GOLDILOCKS (directed by Philipp Straetker), in which she played the leading role, made it onto the shortlist for the BAFTA Student Film Awards, among others.

This was followed in 2020 by a role in the ZDF drama film DAS TAL DER MÖRDER (The Valley of the Murderers, directed by Peter Keglevic) and in 2021 by an appearance in a leading role in an episode of the cult ZDF series SOKO WISMAR (directed by Oren Schmucker).

Since summer 2021, Katharina Leonore Goebel has been appearing in a recurring role in the successful ARD series WATZMANN ERMITTELT. She plays the character of Sophia Strasser, who has since been promoted to detective inspector, alongside the two detectives Beissl (Andreas Giebl) and Paulsen (Peter Marton) at the Berchtesgaden police station. The actress comments: "Sophia Strasser is a go-getter with Bavarian roots. Being able to join the Watzmann team with such a strong and humorous female role is a real gift for me as an actress.‘ The fifth season is now ’in the can," and a 90-minute episode is planned for ARD prime time in 2026.

When the shooting schedule allows, Katharina Leonore Goebel breaks out of her detective role. In 2023, she appeared in an episode of the successful ZDF series DIE CHEFIN, directed by Alexander Costea. She gave an impressive performance in the ZDF film DIE BESTATTERIN, directed by Lydia Bruna. She played the lead role alongside Christian Tramitz in the short film ZWISCHENZEIT, which premiered at the Hof Film Festival in 2024. 

The two feature films TAMAS TRAUM, the feature film debut of director Michael Grudskys, and AMEISEN FRESSEN KEIN HALVA, the debut film of director Alisa Kolosova, as well as the series CALL MY AGENT for Disney+, directed by Johann Buchholz, have been completed. Broadcast is scheduled for autumn/winter 2025.

Katharina Leonore Goebel demonstrated her interest in comedic characters and her range of German dialects in the NDR satire programme ‘Extra 3’, in which she played the relative of various politicians as their ‘sister’.

(8/2025)