Max Giermann

Max Giermann is an actor, comedian, impressionist, director, and visual artist. He has been known to a wider public since the early 2000s through his work in television, theater, and film. Alongside this, he has been developing an independent body of paintings for several years, which is increasingly being exhibited in institutional and gallery settings.

After graduating from the Berthold Gymnasium in Freiburg and completing his civilian service, Giermann initially studied media art at the Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe before training at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin from 1997 to 2001. Even during his studies, he performed on Berlin stages such as the Maxim Gorki Theater. This was followed by engagements at theaters including the Schauspiel Essen, Theater Bonn, and Volkstheater Wien, as well as directing his own productions.

Since 2004, Max Giermann has primarily worked as a comedian and actor. He was a member of the ensemble cast of influential shows such as “Frei Schnauze” and “Switch reloaded,” for which he received multiple awards, including the German Comedy Award, the German Television Award, the Romy Award, and the Grimme Prize. He is known to millions of viewers, in particular, for his precise and often radically exaggerated parodies, including those of figures like Klaus Kinski, Karl Lagerfeld, Stefan Raab, and Sigmar Gabriel. In addition to numerous film and television productions, he won the second season of “LOL: Last One Laughing” in 2021.

Alongside his work in front of the camera, Giermann developed an intensive practice in drawing and painting early on. His visual work revolves around questions of identity, role, mask, and projection—themes that also permeate his performance art. In his paintings and drawings, these motifs coalesce into expressive, often unsettling visual worlds that exist between figure, fragment, and psychological portrait. His work has been exhibited at venues including the Kunstverein Ulm and the Galerie Holger John in Dresden.

The janinebeangallery presents 2026 paintings by Max Giermann in a solo exhibition as part of Gallery Weekend Berlin.