# Nikolai Kinski

Nanhoï Nikolai Kinski (born July 30, 1976) is a French-American film actor, who has also done work in television and on stage. He was born in Paris, and grew up in California. Currently residing in Berlin, he has acted primarily in American and German films, and speaks English, German, and French. He is a citizen of both the U.S. and France.
He is the only son of the German actor Klaus Kinski and his third wife, Minhoi Geneviève Loanic. He is the half-brother of actresses Pola Kinski and Nastassja Kinski, and through Nastassja, the uncle of model Kenya Kinski-Jones.

## Early life and education

Kinski was born in 1976 in Paris, to German actor Klaus Kinski, and his third wife, Minhoi Geneviève Loanic, a model of 19 when they met, who was born in Vietnam and came with her family to France at the age of seven. His father had two older daughters, Pola Kinski and Nastassja Kinski, born in Germany to his first and second wives, respectively. He took his family to California, where Nikolai lived mostly with his mother after his parents divorced in 1979. He was never close to his half-sisters, who lived most of the time in Germany.

## Acting career

Kinski's father encouraged his interest in acting. His first role was at the age of 13 alongside his father in the film Kinski Paganini (1989). In the mid-1990s, he entered the UCLA School of Theatre as a theatre major and graduated from there.
Afterward Kinski moved to Berlin, where he learned to speak German fluently. He has since starred in a number of German language films and TV series, in addition to American works. He starred in Æon Flux (2005) alongside Charlize Theron.
In 2006, Kinski won the Romy Award as best newcomer.

## Filmography

| Year | Title | Role | Director | Notes |
| 1989 | Paganini | Achille Paganini | Klaus Kinski | |
| 1994 | Jamila | Young Seit | Monica Teuber [de] | |
| 2000 | West Coast | | Joshua Davis | |
| 2000 | Recessions | The Man | Robbie Stauder | Short |
| 2001 | Tortilla Soup | Andy | Maria Ripoll | |
| 2002 | Never Get Outta the Boat | Saturn | Paul Quinn | |
| 2002 | The Devil Who Called Himself God | Lukas | Dmitriy Astrakhan | |
| 2003 | Dirty Sky | Paule | Andy Bausch | |
| 2003 | Connecting Dots | Alex | Alon Aranya | |
| 2004 | Untreu | Milan Farkas | Rainer Matsutani | TV film |
| 2005 | Æon Flux | Claudius | Karyn Kusama | |
| 2005 | Under the Dark Sun of Africa [fr] | Duncan Coburn | Roland Suso Richter | TV film |
| 2005 | Tatort | Martin Schneider | Robert Sigl | TV series (1 episode) Romy Gala - Favorite Male Shooting Star |
| 2006 | Klimt | Egon Schiele | Raúl Ruiz | Nominated - Undine Awards - Best Young Character Actor/ Actress |
| 2006 | Grimm Love | Otto Hauser | Martin Weisz | |
| 2006 | Fay Grim | Amin | Hal Hartley | |
| 2006 | Lemniskate | Him | Anna Bederke | Short |
| 2006 | Nichts geht mehr | Marc | Andreas Schaap | Short |
| 2007 | Giganten | Aimé Bonpland | Gero von Boehm | TV series (1 episode) |
| 2008 | The Secret Adventures of the Projectionist | The Projectionist | Max Sacker | Short |
| 2009 | Die zwei Leben des Daniel Shore | Daniel Shore | Michael Dreher | |
| 2009 | The Countess | The Teacher | Julie Delpy | |
| 2009 | Krupp: A Family Between War and Peace [de] | Arndt von Bohlen | Carlo Rola | TV miniseries |
| 2009 | SOKO Donau | Sebastian Opitz | Robert Sigl (2) | TV series (1 episode) |
| 2010 | The Apologies | The Man | Hal Hartley (2) | Short |
| 2010 | Planet | The Man | Matthew Branning & Bjoern Ruehmann | Short |
| 2010 | Kalter Hund | Simon | Anna Porzelt | Short |
| 2011 | Long Distance Call | The Rezeptionist | Grzegorz Muskala | Short |
| 2011 | The Sinking of the Laconia | Walter Drexler | Uwe Janson | TV miniseries |
| 2011 | Stuttgart Homicide | Björn Kowald | Rainer Matsutani (2) | TV series (1 episode) |
| 2012 | Belle de Lyon | Marcel | Max Sacker (2) | Short |
| 2012 | Mary of Nazareth | Judas | Giacomo Campiotti | TV film |
| 2012 | Stolberg | Benjamin Becker | Andi Niessner | TV series (1 episode) |
| 2013 | Alex | Alex | Florian Frerichs | Short |
| 2013 | Die Frau hinter der Wand | Junger Makler | Grzegorz Muskala (2) | TV film |
| 2013 | Einsatz in Hamburg | Erster Offizier Barlog | Carlo Rola (2) | TV series (1 episode) |
| 2014 | Yves Saint Laurent | Karl Lagerfeld | Jalil Lespert | |
| 2014 | Posthumous | Kaleb Moo | Lulu Wang | |
| 2014 | Die Innere Zone | Dr. Antonius Cappa | Fosco Dubini | |
| 2014 | Neben der Spur - Adrenalin | Robert Mohren | Cyrill Boss & Philipp Stennert | TV film |
| 2014 | Iron Fist [de] | Kaiser Karl | Carlo Rola (3) | TV film |
| 2014 | Küstenwache | Dolf Karst | Dagmar von Chappuis | TV series (1 episode) |
| 2014 | Binny und der Geist | Magnus Mala | Nico Zingelmann | TV series (1 episode) |
| 2015 | 1915 | Tony | Garin Hovannisian & Alec Mouhibian | |
| 2015 | Point Break | Pascal Al-Fariq | Ericson Core | |
| 2015 | After the Fall | René Valmund | Carlo Rola (4) | TV miniseries |
| 2016 | Axolotl Blockbuster | Mr. Kroschinske | Helene Hegemann | |
| 2016 | The Loner | Sepehr | Daniel Grove | |
| 2017 | The Yellow Birds | The Priest | Alexandre Moors | |
| 2018 | Berlin I Love You | Alister | Gabriela Tscherniak | |
| 2019 | Berlin Station | Roman Platov | various | TV series (recurring, season 3) |
| 2020 | Barbarians | Pelagios | various | TV series (recurring, season 1) |
| 2022 | Vikings: Valhalla | Romanos III Argyros | | TV series (recurring, season 2) |
| 2024 | Masters of the Air | Col. Harold Huglin | Cary Joji Fukunaga | TV mini-series (season 1) |