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F.W. Murnau was a German film director. He was greatly influenced by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Shakespeare and Ibsen plays he had seen at the age of 12, and became a friend of director Max Reinhardt. During World War I he served as a company commander at the eastern front and was in the German air force, surviving several crashes without any severe injuries.

One of Murnau's acclaimed works is the 1922 film Nosferatu, an adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Although not a commercial success due to copyright issues with Stoker's novel, the film is considered a masterpiece of Expressionist film.

He later emigrated to Hollywood in 1926, where he joined the Fox Studio and made three films: Sunrise (1927), 4 Devils (1928) and City Girl (1930). The first of these three is widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made.

In 1931 Murnau travelled to Bora Bora to make the film Tabu (1931) with documentary film pioneer Robert J. Flaherty, who left after artistic disputes with Murnau, who had to finish the movie on his own. A week prior to the opening of the film Tabu, Murnau died in a Santa Barbara hospital from injuries he had received in an automobile accident that occurred along the Pacific Coast Highway near Rincon Beach, southeast of Santa Barbara. Only 11 people attended his funeral. Among them were Robert J. Flaherty, Emil Jannings, Greta Garbo and Fritz Lang, who delivered the eulogy.

Of the 21 films Murnau directed, eight are considered to be completely lost.

In July 2015 Murnau's grave was broken into, the remains disturbed and the skull removed by persons unknown. Wax residue was reportedly found at the site, leading some to speculate that candles had been lit, perhaps with an occult or ceremonial significance. As this disturbance was not an isolated incident, the cemetery managers are considering sealing the grave.

Susanne Wolff was born on 1 May 1973 in Bielefeld, Germany. She is an actress, known for Styx (2018), The Three Musketeers (2011) and Morgen hör ich auf (2016).

Michael Wittenborn was born on 31 May 1953 in Bielefeld, Germany. He is an actor, known for All Quiet on the Western Front (2022), Merz gegen Merz (2019) and Toni Erdmann (2016). He is married to Karin Beier. They have one child.

Rolf Kanies was born on 21 December 1957 in Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He is an actor and producer, known for Downfall (2004), Hitman: Agent 47 (2015) and Einstein (2017).

Florian Panzner was born on 20 July 1976 in Bielefeld, Germany. He is an actor, known for Valkyrie (2008), Dark (2017) and Luther (2003).

Jana Nawartschi was born in Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. She is an actress and writer, known for Hunters (2020), Simon (2023) and Deranged Granny (2020).

Bernhard Schlink is a German lawyer, academic, and novelist. He is best known for his novel The Reader which was first published in 1995 and became an international bestseller.

He was born in Großdornberg to a German father (Edmund Schlink) and a Swiss mother, the youngest of four children. His mother, Irmgard, had been a theology student of his father, whom she married in 1938. Bernhard's father had been a seminary professor and pastor in the Confessing Church. In 1946, he became a professor of dogmatic and ecumenical theology at Heidelberg University, where he would serve until his retirement in 1971. Over the course of four decades Edmund Schlink became one of the most famous and influential Lutheran theologians in the world and a key participant in the modern Ecumenical Movement. Bernhard Schlink was brought up in Heidelberg from the age of two. He studied law at West Berlin's Free University, graduating in 1968.

Schlink became a judge at the Constitutional Court of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1988 and in 1992 a professor for public law and the philosophy of law at Humboldt University, Berlin. He retired in January 2006.

Schlink studied law at the University of Heidelberg and at the Free University of Berlin. He worked as a scientific assistant at the Universities of Darmstadt, Bielefeld and Freiburg. He had been a law professor at the University of Bonn and Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main before he started in 1992 at Humboldt University of Berlin. His career as a writer began with several detective novels. One of these, Die gordische Schleife, won the Glauser Prize in 1989.

In 1995, he published The Reader (Der Vorleser), a novel about a teenager who has an affair with a woman in her thirties who suddenly vanishes but whom he meets again as a law student when visiting a trial about war crimes. The book became a bestseller both in Germany and the United States and was translated into 39 languages. It was the first German book to reach the number one position in the New York Times bestseller list. In 1997, it won the Hans Fallada Prize, a German literary award, and the Prix Laure Bataillon for works translated into French. In 1999 it was awarded the Welt-Literaturpreis of the newspaper Die Welt.

In 2000, Schlink published a collection of short fiction called Flights of Love. In 2008, Stephen Daldry directed a film adaptation of The Reader. In 2010, his non-fiction political history, Guilt About the Past was published by Beautiful Books Limited (UK).

Barbara Orbison was born on 10 January 1950 in Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. She was a producer, known for Roy Orbison: I Drove All Night (1992), Forbidden Apple (2018) and Roy Orbison Live in Texas (1986). She was married to Roy Orbison. She died on 6 December 2011 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Timm Oberwelland was born on 4 November 1969 in Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He is a producer and executive, known for The Most Beautiful Girl in the World (2018), A Whole Life (2023) and Catweazle (2021).

Isabell Horn was born on 31 December 1983 in Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. She is an actress, known for Alles was zählt (2006), Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten (1992) and Meine wunderbare Familie (2008).

Martin Bretschneider was born on 22 December 1974 in Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He is an actor and writer, known for Red Cell (2020), Phantomschmerz (2018) and The Miracle of Bern (2003).

Daniel Aichinger was born on 25 October 1974 in Bielefeld, Germany. He is an actor, known for Alles was zählt (2006), Lindenstraße (1985) and Der Bergdoktor (2008).

Oliver Welke was born on 19 April 1966 in Bielefeld, Germany. He is a writer and actor, known for heute-show (2009), Der Wixxer (2004) and Ich bin Boes (2010). He has been married to Diane since 1997. They have two children.

Gustav-Peter Wöhler was born on 31 July 1956 in Bielefeld, Germany. He is an actor, known for Soul Kitchen (2009), Alles außer Mord! (1994) and Crime Stories (2013). He has been married to Albert Wiederspiel since 2008.

Pascal Houdus was born in 1986 in nearby Bielefeld, Northrhine-Westphalia, Germany. He is an actor, known for Am Ende der Worte (2021), One Last Evening (2023) and For the time being (2018).

Reiki von Carlowitz was born in 1987 in Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. She is an actress and casting director, known for The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Die Ironie des Lebens (2024) and The Space Between the Lines (2019).

Ulrich Wildgruber was born on 18 November 1937 in Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He was an actor, known for Super (1984), Felidae (1994) and Queen Margot (1994). He was married to Vera. He died on 30 November 1999 in Sylt, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

Hera Lind was born on 2 November 1957 in Bielefeld, Germany. She is a writer and actress, known for Das Superweib (1996), Ein Mann für jede Tonart (1993) and Mord an Bord (2002). She has been married to Engelbert Lainer since 2002.

Known for his intense on-screen presence. German actor Wolf Danny Homann studied at the Lee Strasberg Theater & Film Institut before becoming part of the Young Ensemble at the renowned Burgtheater Vienna. Than he completed a four-year acting diploma at the University Mozarteum Salzburg. His movies include work with directors such as Oscar winning Director Caroline Link. He has also appeared in English-speaking features, such as "The von Trapp Family: A Life of Music (2015) ". Homann is based in England and Germany.

Matthias Müller was born in Bielefeld, West Germany on March 29, 1961. He first became interested in filmmaking while he was a student in Arts and German Literature at Bielefeld University in the 1980s. In 1985 Müller co-founded the Alte Kinder Film Collective with friends Christiane Heuwinkel and Maja-Lene Rettig. The members of Alte Kinder collectively produced and distributed a series of cutting edge films on Super-8, the film gauge preferred by Germany's post-punk wave of underground filmmakers. Müller first gained international attention with the release of his 1989 film, Aus Der Ferne, a meditation on loss and mourning. Müller's next film, Home Stories (1990), used a mesmerizing montage of shots from technicolor melodramas of the 1950s and 60s to comment on Hollywood conventions. The film went on to win numerous awards and to establish Müller's international reputation as an important new star of the film and art worlds. Since then, Müller has continued to create some of the most stunning works to come out of the avant garde in years. Vacancy (1999), a nostalgic glance into the past, examines the hopes and dreams of a post-World War II, pre-Kennedy assassination world. The film's flickering cuts between 1961 and the present are a heartbreaking reminder of promises left unfulfilled. In 1999, Müller and collaborator Christoph Girardet were commissioned to create a series of works based on the films of Alfred Hitchcock for the Oxford Museum of Modern Art. The result, Phoenix Tapes (2000), is an entertaining study of the themes and techniques of the master of suspense. Müller's short film, Breeze (2000), was used as an advertisement for the Vienna International Film Festival.

Ernst-Ludwig Freisewinkel was born on 20 March 1930 in Bielefeld, Germany. He was a director and writer, known for Fortsetzung heute (1963), Das große Revier (1966) and Wir und der Kosmos (1968). He died on 22 April 2017 in Cologne, Germany.

Bernd-Christian Althoff was born in 1983 in Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He is an actor, known for Der Lehrer (2009), Neandertaler (2016) and Tatort (1970).

Jeannine Gaspár was born in 1992 in Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. She is an actress, known for Storm of Love (2005), Nachtschwestern (2019) and Aktenzeichen XY... ungelöst! (1967).

Engin Kundag was born in 1984 in Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He is a director and writer, known for Ararat (2023), Ararat (2012) and Etwas Frieden (2010).

Thomas Möller was born on 12 February 1974 in Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He is a writer and director, known for Stundenhotel (2000), Schneller als der Zug (2000) and Pittiplatsch (2019).