Peri Baumeister

The Berlin Legacy

Peri Baumeister was born in Berlin in 1986, surrounded by scripts and clay. Her father was actor Edwin Noël and her mother was sculptor Judith Baumeister. She grew up watching art become an everyday craft before deciding her path lay in front of the camera.

She studied acting at the August Everding Bavarian Theater Academy in Munich between 2007 and 2011. During those training years, she was already performing on the stage of the Metropoltheater. She wasn’t chasing quick fame; she wanted to understand the weight of every silence on stage.

The German industry was quick to notice her.

In 2011, she landed her first leading film role with Tabu – Es ist die Seele ein Fremdes auf Erden. Her performance as Gretl Trakl earned her the Max Ophüls Prize for Best Young Actress. It was a raw, forceful debut that steered clear of the most obvious commercial routes.

She took part in the comedy Russendisko in 2012, and a year later joined the cast of Feuchtgebiete. The latter film caused considerable media buzz across Europe because of its raw content. Baumeister preferred to keep a low profile while continuing to work on quality television productions in her home country.

The Leap into International Production

British television was the bridge.

In 2017, she joined the cast of the series The Last Kingdom to play Gisela. Filming took place mainly in Hungary and marked her first major exposure to English-speaking audiences. She stayed with the production until 2018, balancing the physical strength and emotional restraint the script demanded.

But the global market changed the rules of the game for her shortly after. In 2019, she starred in Skylines, a series set in Frankfurt’s hip hop industry. The show lasted only one season on Netflix, but it helped international casting directors put her name on their list of priorities.

Then came the rise of mass streaming.

In 2021, she led the cast of Blood Red Sky, playing a mother with a mysterious illness on a hijacked plane. The horror and action film racked up 50 million views in its first four weeks of release. It was the project that definitively moved her beyond the European niche and onto televisions around the world.

Maturing in the Suspense Genre

Baumeister rarely chooses comfortable roles. She prefers characters that demand real physical stamina or a visual transformation that takes her far from her own image. In 2023, she starred in the series Sleeping Dog, playing a prosecutor caught in a web of police conspiracies in Berlin.

In 2024, she headed the cast of The Signal alongside Florian David Fitz. She played an astronaut who disappears during a space mission, leaving behind a scientific mystery. Filming for this miniseries alternated between studios in Bavaria and desert locations in Morocco.

The actress still lives in Berlin and avoids red carpets whenever her contract allows it. Her academic training in Munich remains the foundation of her current working method.

The production of The Signal had a budget of 15 million euros, partially funded by the German Motion Picture Fund.