Valerie Niehaus

Niehaus began her career at the age of 13 with a television appearance in the series "Rote Erde." She gained prominence for her role as Julia von Anstetten in "Verbotene Liebe," winning the bronze Bravo Otto as female TV star in both 1995 and 1996. After leaving the show in 1997, she moved to New York City to study acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, graduating in 1999. Her film and television credits include "St. Pauli Night" (1998), "Flashback" (2000), "Love Crash" (2001), "Der Duft des Geldes" (2002), "Cleaning Up" (2003), "Alles über Anna" (2006), "Ship of No Return: The Final Voyage of the Gustloff" (2008), "Mogadischu" (2008), and "Tierisch Verliebt" (2009). In 2010, she starred as Maja Nielsen in "Sind denn alle Männer Schweine?," and in 2011 she played the first love of Udo Jürgens in "The Man with the Bassoon." Her 2013 role as Vera von Schalburg in "The Beautiful Spy" depicted a spy working for the German defense at the start of World War II. She appeared in "Frauenherzen" (2014) and "Überleben an der Scheidungsfront" (2014). Since 2018, she has worked as a correspondent on the ZDF satirical news program "heute show."

Niehaus is a single mother to her son Joshua Elias, born in 2002. She married her long-time partner Manuel Graf, a biologist and consultant to an investment bank, on June 20, 2021. She lives in Berlin. The German actress Ruth Niehaus is her grandaunt.