Birgit Stauber

Born in Vienna/Austria. Stage debut at 5. Directs and choreographs her first musical age 11. University entrance diploma: grad point average 1 (all As). Her teenage years are highly competitive in various sports and dance. Birgit is deeply inspired by Danny Kaye, the old MGM musical performers and musicals like Jesus Christ Superstar, Hair or West Side Story. She quits her medicine studies in favor to studying Musical Theater, one of her first roles is "Little Red Ridinghood" in Into The Woods by Stephen Sondheim, one of her all-time favorite composers. Birgit's TV debut as an actress is also her first leading role, the "Mariandl" in the Austrian remake Hofrat Geiger (1996). 1998 she wins the German Rising Movie Talent Award and goes to Los Angeles to study film acting. Back to Vienna she finishes her studies in Directing Musical Theater at the University of Music and Performing Arts and moves to Berlin. On European Television she becomes widely known with her lead role "Rabe" (English: raven) in the Action Comedy Wilde Engel (2002). The film wins the Taurus Stunt Award in 2003, Birgit is nominated Shooting Star for the Austrian TV Award Romy and the TV Series Wilde Engel (2003) is distributed by Sony Pictures worldwide. Birgit enlarges her dance skills with studying Kathak (Classical North Indian Dance), founds her production company Leyendas (Spanish for legends) and starts writing screenplays. Her first short film Adieu Bonjour (2008) is co-funded by the Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg, her first feature film Freak City (2020) is developed with a scholarship of the Wim Wenders Filmstiftung. In the last years Birgit Stauber has both acted in and directed different award-winning productions. From 2018-2022 she was member of the board of Pro Quota Film Germany, fighting for gender equality and diversity in the German film industry. She is member of Equity UK (actors guild UK), the Austrian Film Academy and the BVR (directors guild Germany).