Bio
Natalia Wörner is a German actress best known to English audiences for her starring role as Ellen, a healer who relies on her instincts and education to help her son, Jack, as well as Tom and his family, in the historical drama television miniseries The Pillars of the Earth, based on the book of the same name by Ken Follett.
Born in Stuttgart, Germany, Wörner studied at Lee Strasberg's Actors' Studio in New York. Returning to Germany, she started acting on stage in Hamburg.
She made her film debut in 1992 in the feature Leni, as a young Jewish woman who has to escape from Germany. In the same year, she continued working in TV, as well as in other feature films such as Frauen sind etwas Wunderbares (Women are Wonderful) by Sherry Hormann and Die Sieger (The Invincibles), a police thriller by Dominik Graf.
In 1994, she worked alongside Gerard Depardieu in François Dupeyron's suspense thriller La Machine. In 1995 her role in the popular TV series Um die Dreißig (About 30) made her famous across a broad spectrum of the German audience. Since then she has appeared as a leading actress in dozens of films.
Wörner received her first award, the Golden Gong in 1996 for her outstanding performance in the episode Perfect Mind of long-running crime series Tatort (Crime Scene). In 1996, she filmed the romantic comedy Irren ist Männlich (Father's Day), also directed by Sherry Hormann, which further raised her profile.
Wörner's diversity allows her to easily move between drama and comedy. This talent earned her in 2000, the Deutscher Fernsehpreis for Best Leading Actress, for her performances in the drama Blinde Liebe / Bella Block and in the comedy Frauen lügen besser, an adaptation of Annemarie Schoenle's novel.
Continually re-inventing herself and her acting style, Wörner moves easily from television to feature film to theatrical stage, and appeared in 2001 at the Hamburger Kammerspiele in David Hare's The Blue Room and David Auburn's Proof.
In 2005 she was part of the world premiere of Ulrich Waller's Ein Stück vom Himmel (A Piece of Heaven) at the Deutsches Theater Berlin, which was part of the Jewish Culture Festival.
She returned in 2009 to the Renaissance Theatre in Berlin, for Patrick Marbers' successful play Hautnah (Closer) directed by Ulrike Jackwerth.
In 2004, Wörner again worked in French for the international cinematic production 20 Nuits et un Jour du Pluie (20 Nights and One Rainy Day), which premiered in Cannes.
Also in 2006, while expecting a baby, she shot the first movie of her successful TV crime series Unter anderem Umständen (Under Different Circumstances) directed by Judith Kennel. The pregnancy was written in for her character.
In 2009 she appeared in the English/German coproduction Four Seasons, starring alongside Senta Berger, Tom Conti and Michael York.
Wörner was on vacation in Thailand in December 2004 when she witnessed the devastation of the December 26th tsunami first hand. On her return to Germany, she founded the Tsunami Direkthilfe e.V. in 2005, whose function is to help re-establish the coastal fishing communities shattered by the disaster.
In 2006 she also became an ambassador for the international children's aid organisation, Kindernothilfe e.V. She supports children's projects in Germany and abroad.
In 2010 she was invited to become an ambassador for the highly respected Karl Kübel Preis.