Til Schweiger made his acting debut in the long-running German television drama series ‘Lindenstraße’ in which he portrayed Jo Zenker for 37 episodes during 1990-92. In 1991, he made his big screen debut as a lead actor in the German action-comedy film ‘Manta, Manta’. He next acted in the crime-comedy film ‘Ebbies Bluff’ (1993), the thriller telefilm ‘Lemgo’ (1994) and the short film ‘ABS serienmäßig - Kondome schützen’ (1994). His breakthrough performance came in the lead role of Axel Feldheim in the 1994 comedy film ‘Der bewegte Mann’ (‘Maybe ... Maybe Not’) which, at the time of release, was the biggest grossing homegrown film at the German box office. That year, he returned to television to portray Nick Siegel in the crime drama series ‘Die Kommissarin’ (‘Lady Cop’, 1994-96). He had a brief guest appearance in another crime drama series, ‘Polizeiruf 110’ (‘Police Call 110’) in 1995 and also appeared in the crime film ‘Bunte Hunde’ the same year. The following year, his credits included the movies ‘Jailbirds’ (‘Männerpension’) and ‘Das Superweib’, and the telefilms ‘Adrenalin’, ‘The Girl Rosemarie’ (‘Das Mädchen Rosemarie’), and ‘Die Halbstarken’.
Til Schweiger earned ‘Best Actor’ awards at several film festivals for his lead role in the 1997 German crime-comedy film ‘Knockin' On Heaven's Door’, which also marked his debut as a producer and a director (uncredited). That year, he further earned accolades for his starring role in his first English-language movie, the Polish-German-French drama film ‘Bandyta’ (‘Bastard’), and voiced Hercules in the German version of the Disney animated adventure film of the same name. Next year, he started appearing in international English-language films with the American crime thriller ‘Judas Kiss’, followed by the action film ‘The Replacement Killers’ and the comedy-drama ‘SLC Punk!’ He also directed, produced and starred in the German action film ‘Der Eisbär’ (‘The Polar Bear’). In the next couple years, he went on to feature in a number of German films such as ‘Bang Boom Bang - Ein todsicheres Ding’, ‘The Devil and Ms. D’ (‘Der grosse Bagarozy’), and ‘Now or Never’ (‘Jetzt oder nie - Zeit ist Geld’), as well as the German-American comedy film ‘Magicians’. In 2000, he also appeared in the music video for the Blank & Jones song ‘Beyond Time’.
Throughout the 2000s, Til Schweiger primarily worked in English-language films, both German and international, including the sports action film ‘Driven’ (2001), the comedy-drama film ‘Intimate Affairs’ (2001), the boxing telefilm ‘Joe and Max’ (2002), the action adventure film ‘Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life’ (2003), the war thriller ‘In Enemy Hands’ (2004), the historical adventure film ‘King Arthur’ (2004), the sex comedy film ‘Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo’ (2005), the psychological thriller ‘One Way’ (2004) – which he produced as well, the comedy film ‘Bye Bye Harry!’ (2006), the action thriller ‘Body Armour’ (2007), the crime thriller ‘Already Dead’ (2007), the biographical action-adventure ‘The Red Baron’ (2008), and the action film ‘Far Cry’ (2008). However, he gained widespread critical acclaim for his portrayal of Hugo Stieglitz in Quentin Tarantino's war film ‘Inglourious Basterds’ in 2009. During this period, he directed, produced, and acted in several German films, while sometimes also writing the story and screenplay. Such films included the romantic comedies ‘Barfuss’ (‘Barefoot’, 2005), ‘Rabbit Without Ears’ (‘Keinohrhasen’, 2007) and ‘Zweiohrküken’ (‘Rabbit Without Ears 2’, 2009), and the comedy film ‘1½ Ritter – Auf der Suche nach der hinreißenden Herzelinde’ (‘1½ Knights – In Search of the Ravishing Princess Herzelinde’, 2008). He also appeared in other German films like ‘What to Do in Case of Fire?’ (‘Was tun, wenn's brennt?’, 2001), ‘(T)Raumschiff Surprise - Periode 1’ (2004), ‘Agnes and His Brothers’ (‘Agnes und seine Brüder’, 2004), ‘Where Is Fred?’ (‘Wo ist Fred?, 2006), ‘Phantomschmerz’ (‘Phantom Pain’, 2009) and ‘Men in the City’ (‘Männerherzen’, 2009), apart from the French-German-Spanish Western comedy film ‘Les Dalton’ (‘Lucky Luke and the Daltons’, 2004).
In 2011, Til Schweiger directed, produced, and wrote the German comedy film ‘Kokowääh’, in which he also starred alongside his two daughters Luna and Emma. The successful film produced the sequel ‘Kokowääh 2’ (2013), which also featured his parents. He again directed, produced and acted alongside Luna in the action film ‘Schutzengel’ in 2012. However, his most successful film was the 2014 family drama ‘Head Full of Honey’ (‘Honig im Kopf’), which he directed, produced, wrote and starred in. He later directed the film’s American remake in 2018. Recently, he directed and acted in ‘Klassentreffen 1.0’ (2018), the remake of 2011 Danish comedy film ‘The Reunion’, and ‘Die Hochzeit’ (2020). Throughout the decade, he continued to appear in international films like ‘The Three Musketeers’ (2011), ‘New Year's Eve’ (2011), ‘This Means War’ (2012), ‘The Courier’ (2012), ‘Charlie Countryman’ (2013), ‘Muppets Most Wanted’(2014), and ‘Atomic Blonde’ (2017). His German credits during this period included films such as ‘Men in the City 2’ (‘Männerherzen... und die ganz ganz große Liebe’, 2011), ‘Tschiller: Off Duty’ (2016), and ‘Vier gegen die Bank’ (2016), as well as the police procedural television series ‘Tatort’ (2013-16). He is slated to star in the upcoming Czech action historical drama film ‘Medieval’, apart from his first film’s sequel ‘Manta, Manta 2’.
