Anja Antonowicz – a German TV star from Poland

Anja, real name Anna, Antonowicz, was born in Włocławek on 22 December 1981 and grew up in Toruń, where she made her acting debut at the Wilam Horzyca Theatre. In an interview, she explained that she was so thrilled by the “magic of the stage” that she decided to pursue a career in acting.[1]

In 2000, she began a diploma degree programme in acting at the State Academy of Film, Television and Theatre in Łódź (Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Filmowa, Telewizyjna i Teatralna, or PWSFTViT), which she completed in 2004. During her studies, she gained her first experience in front of a camera when in 2001, she took on a small role as a girl on a swing in the film “Cisza” (“Silence”) directed by Michał Rosa. From 2002 to 2003, she appeared in countless episodes of the Polish soap opera “Na dobre i na złe” (“In Good Times and in Bad”), playing the part of Ruda. In 2005 and 2006, she appeared in the TV series “Pensjonat pod różą” (“The Rose Inn”).[2] She also took on theatre roles in Łódź (Teatr Nowy and Teatr Studyjny PWSFTViT) and at the Teatr Syrena in Warsaw.

However, offers of work were hard to come by. One director told her during an audition that she “wasn’t the right type for Poland”. Apparently, this was due to her distinctive appearance.[3] The director was presumably referring to her long, red, curly hair, which is now her trademark. Antonowicz then decided to try her luck abroad. Since she spoke very good German, she applied for work with an acting agency in Cologne. She was invited to audition there, and was accepted onto their books. 

Through the agency, Anna Antonowicz landed a role on the Hamburg set of the ZDF crime series “Bella Block”, which tells of the exploits of a detective superintendent of the same name. In an episode broadcast in 2005, titled “Die Frau des Teppichlegers” (“The Carpet Layer’s Wife”), she played Maria Kozłowska, an asparagus cutter from Poland who is raped in broad daylight after passers-by in front of a shopping centre fail to respond to her cries for help. “I put a great deal of emotional effort into the role, and it is the one that remains strongest in my memory. I’m proud of it”, Antonowicz explains in an interview with Porta Polonica. This effort did not go unnoticed in Germany and she won acclaim for her work. In 2006, she was nominated for the best supporting actor category for the prestigious German Television Award (Deutscher Fernsehpreis).

This opened up new career opportunities for her in Germany. In 2005, she was given a role in the TV series “Lindenstrasse” on WDR, the first ever German soap opera, which was broadcast once a week from the mid-1980s through to 2020. In the series, Antonowicz played the Moldovan immigrant Nastya Pashenko. After playing this role, she moved to Cologne. From then on, she was officially allowed to live and work legally in Germany even though at that time, the German labour market was still temporarily closed to Polish citizens. Her adventure with “Lindenstrasse” lasted for a total of eight years, with the occasional break in between.