Idan Weiss

He looked at the wall for a long time and then fell asleep, says Idan Weiss about the moment that changed his acting life. Polish film director Agnieszka Holland had hired him for the lead role in her feature film FRANZ. The film was shot for several months in Prague and Berlin in 2023 and is due to be released in cinemas in 2025/2026.

Idan Weiss was born in the tranquil town of Seesen in Lower Saxony in 1997. At the time, there was nothing to suggest that he would pursue a career as an actor. In his youth, he did everything he could, liked to try out everything and gained experience for life, says Idan Weiss today. He even has a forklift driver's license, because it allows him to earn money alongside his studies.

He started acting in "Cactus Junges Theater (improvisation/acting training/2015-2016), an intercultural theater group in Münster whose work focuses on teenagers and young adults. That was his thing. This was followed by a year at the ARTURO acting school in Cologne (2016-2017) and a move to the IAF International Academy for Film Acting (2017-2018). From 2020 - 2023, Idan Weiss attended various coaching classes and workshops, while at the same time gaining acting experience on stage and in front of the camera.

First he was “Peer Gynt 2.0”, followed by Henri in “Drei Mal Leben” and he even played Andy Warhol in “Leben des Andy Warhol”. At Theater Gängeviertel Hamburg, he directed his first plays himself: “Ich bin die Isolation” and “Die Wahrheit über dich Nichts”. As well as the theater performances at The Space - am Ballindamm: “Sehnsuchtskammer” and “Wolkenmonolog”, which he also directed himself.

Parallel to the theater, Idan Weiss worked in front of the camera. Initially he played leading roles in short films by filmmaker friends, but director Robert Thalheim soon became aware of Idan Weiss and cast him in his feature film TKKG (2019). This was followed by many more educational productions and short films - and then came the call from casting director Simone Bär for the movie project FRANZ.

The biopic depicts the life of writer Franz Kafka as a mosaic, from his birth in Prague at the end of the 19th century to his death in Berlin after the end of the First World War. The screenplay was written by Marek Epstein in collaboration with Holland. FRANZ was made as a Czech-German-French-Polish co-production.

In addition to acting, his passion is music. Idan Weiss is the lead singer of the band TRAUMWERK, which explores areas such as jazz, post-punk and electro. The first album will be released between summer and fall 2025. He also works as a performance artist, paints and writes.

Idan Weiss lives in Hamburg and Cologne.

(May 2025)