Simon Verhoeven

Simon Verhoeven is a director and screenwriter. He was born on June 20, 1972, in Munich, Germany, to actress Senta Berger and director Michael Verhoeven.

After high school, Verhoeven enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute to study acting but left the program after a couple of months to complete a four-year degree in screenwriting and directing at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. He also studied piano under the American jazz pianist Don Friedman.

Starting out as an actor, Verhoeven appeared in over 30 feature films and TV movies – among them the New York-based indie comedy Party Girl (1995), the biopic Bride of the Wind (2001) directed by Oscar® nominee Bruce Beresford, the award-winning Mogadischu (2008) as well as the Russian-German film Vasilisa (2000), starring alongside infamous punk icon Nina Hagen.

In 2001, Verhoeven made his cinematic debut as a director and screenwriter with the coming-of-age film 100 Pro (2001) starring Ken Duken. His big break came with the feature film Men in the City (2009) (internationally released as Men in the City). Distributed by Warner Bros., the comedy became a hit with audiences and critics alike, winning the Jupiter Award 2010 for Best Film as well as the Bavarian Film Award for Best Screenplay, among others. The cast also received a Bambi (Germany’s most prestigious media award). Men in the City has been remade in various countries.

After writing and directing the equally successful sequel Men in the City 2 (2011), Verhoeven turned to a completely different genre in 2014, directing the low-budget-horror movie Unfriend starring Alycia Debnam-Carey. Although a creative disappointment for the director, the German production was screened in theaters worldwide.

Verhoeven’s next movie Welcome to Germany (2016) became 2016’s most successful German film in theaters. The biting social satire deals with the refugee crisis and social tensions by placing them in the microcosm of a quarreling family. Hitting the zeitgeist, the film won numerous awards in Germany and was nominated for Best Comedy at the European Film Awards. It was even adapted for the stage, debuting at the renowned Viennese Burgtheater.

In 2020, Verhoeven’s film Nightlife (2020), starring Elyas M’Barek and Palina Rojinski – his fifth collaboration with Warner Bros. and the German production company Wiedemann & Berg – went straight to number one at the German box office and was later named the most successful German film of 2020. Nightlife (2020) also won multiple awards including the Ernst Lubitsch Award in 2021.