Steffi Ackermann comes from Netflix, where she most recently worked as Director Series DACH. Prior to that, she was Vice President Local Productions at Warner Bros., where she was responsible for German feature films including 100 DINGE, DER JUNGE MUSS AN DIE FRISCHE LUFT and ALS HITLER DAS ROSA KANINCHEN STAHL. As a producer, she was previously responsible for the cult series DOCTOR'S DIARY, among others.

Bastian Asdonk is the managing director of Hyperbole Medien GmbH, which he founded in 2015. While studying Philosophy and Communication Science, he worked as a TV and radio writer for WDR in Cologne. At the Viennese production company DoRo, he developed the first German-language online video formats for clients such as Yahoo and RTL.

He then went on to design digital business models and media products at Deutsche Telekom, including, among others, the video platform 3min, for which he was head of content for three years. For the productions of hyperbole he has received the Lead Award, the Grimme Online Award, the Grimme Award and the Golden Camera.

As executive director of beetz brothers film production, Reinhardt Beetz has gathered over 30 years of experience as a filmmaker, director and producer for the international market. He has worked as an editor, producer and director for German and international broadcasters and as an associate producer in the US, where he contributed to the production of numerous documentaries for NatGeo, the Discovery Channel and TLC. As head of the beetz brothers film production, his main focus lies on developing and producing for prime time slots including high quality re-enactments and investigative current affairs reports.

A selection of his most important productions includes: VOM PIONIER ZUM MILLIONÄR (2010), 100 JAHRE HOLLYWOOD – DIE CARL LAEMMLE STORY (2011), HAFENWELTEN (2012), THE POWER OF WOMEN (2015), INSIDE MOSSAD (2017), LENINGRAD SYMPHONY. EINE STADT KÄMPFT UM IHR ÜBERLEBEN (2017), DIE HÄLFTE DER WELT GEHÖRT UNS. ALS FRAUEN DAS WAHLRECHT ERKÄMPFTEN (2018), GEHEIMES ISRAEL – DER MOSSAD (2019), LIBANON – GEFANGEN IM CHAOS (2020), and LET’S TALK ABOUT SEX – A CENTURY OF SEX EDUCATION (2022).

As executive director of beetz brothers film production, Christian Beetz has realized more than 250 high-quality, award-winning documentaries and series for the international market. Some of his most important productions include: OPEN HEART which was nominated for the Academy Award in 2013, the International Emmy-nominated THE WAGNER FILES, THE LAND OF THE ENLIGHTENED which won the Special Jury Award for Best Cinematography at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, THE CLEANERS which was nominated for an Emmy and also premiered in competition at Sundance, the first German non-fiction Netflix Original series A PERFECT CRIME, the series VIRAL DREAMS, the high-end documentary series REEPERBAHN SPECIAL UNIT FD 65, Armenia’s official submission for the Academy Awards 2023 AURORA’S SUNRISE, and most recently the series JUAN CARLOS – DOWNFALL OF THE KING for Sky Studios.

Benjamin Benedict is one of the most renowned and successful producers in the German television industry. He worked at UFA Fiction as Head of High End Drama, Managing Director and Producer. His productions include award-winning TV events such as DER TURM, DER FALL JAKOB VON METZLER, LANDGERICHT, KRUSO, ALTES LAND, ELDORADO KADEWE, the International Emmy Award-winning multi-part GENERATION WAR, the award-winning television films BORNHOLMER STRASSE, HOMEVIDEO, AUF KURZE DISTANZ and NACKT UNTER WÖLFEN, the DONNA LEON, ALLMEN and CHARLOTTE LINK series, the series UNSERE WUNDERBAREN JAHRE and LEGAL AFFAIRS as well as the successful brands KU’DAMM and CHARITÉ.

His productions have been awarded the Rose D’Or, the Grimme Prize, the Bambi, the Golden Camera and the German Television Award, among others. He is also an honorary professor at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF and a lecturer at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB), the Erich Pommer Institut and other film schools.

Quirin Berg is a shareholder and co-founder of LEONINE Studios and, as Managing Director of LEONINE Holding and Chief Production Officer, he oversees the group’s entire fiction production. As Chief Creative Officer, he is also responsible for the creative direction of LEONINE Studios.

Quirin Berg studied production and media management from 1999 to 2003 at the University of Television and Film Munich. In 2003 he founded Wiedemann & Berg Film together with Max Wiedemann, followed by W&B Television in 2010. As its Managing Director, shareholder and executive producer he has since been responsible for more than 120 cinema and television productions. These include the Oscar®-winning THE LIVES OF OTHERS, the two-time Oscar®-nominated NEVER LOOK AWAY, and multiple number one box-office hits such as MEN IN THE CITY, JOY OF FATHERHOOD, and WELCOME TO GERMANY.

TV projects include the cult series 4 BLOCKS (TNT Serie), PAGAN PEAK (Sky), and the first German Netflix Original, DARK, which was named Greatest Netflix Original Series by the leading US review site Rotten Tomatoes.

Quirin Berg is a member of the German Film Academy, the European Film Academy as well as the British Film Academy. He was named Bavarian Entrepreneur of the Year and received numerous awards, including the European Film Award, the British Academy Film Award, the Austrian Film Award, the German Film Award, the Bavarian Film Prize, the German Television Prize, the Bavarian Television Award, the Grimme Award, the GQ Men of the Year Award, the LA Critics Award, the Golden Camera, and the Bambi.

Jo Daris began his career in large FMCG companies, including at Hasbro in the role of European Sales Director for Trading Cards and Trading Card Games. From there, he joined Studio 100 to build up the company's international business, which resulted in the acquisition of EM Entertainment and the opening of Studio 100 Animation in France. He then joined Ulli Stoef at m4e. Simultaneously he also worked for Belgian prodco Fobic Films. As a producer Jo is best known for WISSPER, LEVEL Q, KNIGHTBALL, JINNRISE, MONIKA'S GARDEN and various prime time series and theatrical releases in Belgium.

Nina Etspüler joined LEONINE Studios in 2020 as Head of Entertainment Development. In 2022 she became Managing Director of Madame Zheng Production. In her previous roles, she was responsible for global formats and content development, as well as acquisitions and international market launches of format hits like OLD PEOPLE’S HOME FOR 4 YEAR OLDS, KISS BANG LOVE, BUYING BLIND – DAS HAUSKAUF EXPERIMENT and LOOK ME IN THE EYE.

Before she produced CIRCUS HALLIGALLI and DAS DUELL UM DIE WELT with Germany’s popular TV hosts Joko Winterscheidt and Klaas Heufer-Umlauf, Nina Etspüler spent more than ten years as executive producer at ProSieben and Sat.1, where she was responsible for formats such as ELTON VS. SIMON, COMEDYSTREET and RENT A POCHER.

Sebastian Heinlein joined LEONINE Studios in 2021 as Head of Development and Creative Director at SEO Entertainment. In addition to this role, he is Co-Developer at LEONINE Studios and is responsible for the development and creation of new non-fiction and entertainment formats. Most recently, he was Head of Development at Constantin Entertainment. Sebastian Heinlein is highly esteemed in the industry and can already look back on an impressive career. As Executive Producer, he has been holding the reins on the production of the successful Grimme Award-winning show CATCH! – DER GROSSE SAT.1 FANG-FREITAG with the popular German entertainer Luke Mockridge. From 2011 to 2018, as Program Manager at ProSieben Entertainment, he was responsible for the highly-innovative format DIE BESTE SHOW DER WELT and the legendary late-night show CIRCUS HALLIGALLI with the acclaimed presenter duo Joko Winterscheidt and Klaas Heufer-Umlauf, among others. DIE BESTE SHOW DER WELT received the German Television Award, while CIRCUS HALLIGALLI was awarded the Grimme Prize.

In 1996, right after his production studies at the University of Television and Film Munich, Mischa Hofmann founded H&V Entertainment together with Philip Voges. The company joined Odeon Film in 2007. Today Mischa Hofmann is managing director of Odeon Fiction – which is a merger of H&V Entertainment and the former Novafilm. As a producer, Mischa covers the complete repertoire of top-class and renowned film and television productions. From exciting crime thrillers like KDD-KRIMINALDAUERDIENST, great audience hits like BESTE CHANCE, highly-popular series like TÜRKISCH FÜR ANFÄNGER to international series hits – like the recently released SPY CITY. His productions have been awarded numerous times with the German Film Award, the German Television Award as well as the Bavarian Film Award. Mischa was a board member of the Association of Television Producers, a jury member of the German Television Award and has been a member of the Television Section Board of the German Producers Alliance since February 2020.

Fred Kogel is CEO of LEONINE Studios, which he founded in 2019 with the private equity investor KKR. He has been a highly successful producer and management executive in the media and film industry for over 30 years.

Even before graduating with a degree in law, he began his career as a radio producer for the German public broadcaster ARD and various private radio stations. Since 1989, he has been a freelance producer of major successful entertainment shows for German television, including the EUROVISION SONG CONTEST (1989-1991) for ARD and WETTEN, DASS …? (1991-1995) for the German public broadcaster ZDF. From 1993-1995, he was also ZDF’s Head of Entertainment. He then held the position of Managing Director of Programming & Sales at the public TV station Sat.1 for six years, where he was responsible for programming, including major in-house productions as well as the station’s merger with ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG, and greatly expanded the business.

In 2001, he founded what later became Constantin Entertainment GmbH, which he developed into one of Germany’s leading non-fiction production companies.

During the same period, he became a Member of the Management Board of Kirch Media. In 2003, he moved to the position of CEO of Constantin Film AG for six years. At the same time, Fred Kogel founded Kogel & Schmidt GmbH in 2004 as Managing Partner together with legendary entertainer Harald Schmidt and produced late-night shows for ARD, Sat.1 and Sky. In the same period, he also founded Fred Kogel GmbH, a company which consults nationally and internationally recognized media companies and artists. In 2013, Fred Kogel produced the TV show for the ceremony of the most important accolade in the German film business, the German Film Award.

From 2014, Fred Kogel was a Member of the Management Board and from 2016 to 2017 Chairman of the Management Board of the publicly listed Constantin Medien AG. Fred Kogel was also a Member of the Supervisory Board of Constantin Film AG (1999-2003 and 2009-2014), ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG (2002) and Constantin Medien AG (2009-2014).

Jochen Köstler joined LEONINE Studios in January 2024 as Executive Vice President Non-Fiction and Managing Director of i&u TV. Most recently, Jochen served as Managing Director of Constantin Entertainment and worked as a producer for more than ten years. In addition to building the business with streaming platforms and successful formats such as the Amazon Original LAST ONE LAUGHING, whose first season he co-produced, and the reality series GERMANY SHORE, Jochen Köstler produced series such as K11 – DIE NEUEN FÄLLE for Sat.1, DARF ER DAS? – DIE CHRIS TALL SHOW for RTL and the series DER RTL COMEDY GRAND PRIX.

Furthermore, he established and headed the documentary division at Constantin with successful projects such as the highly acclaimed Amazon Original BILD.MACHT.DEUTSCHLAND?, the most successful Sky Original documentary of all times DER ANSCHLAG – ANGRIFF AUF DEN BVB, as well as the two high-end documentary series JAN ULLRICH – DER GEJAGTE for Prime Video and INSIDE GREENPEACE – WAS BRAUCHT ES, UM DIE WELT ZU RETTEN? for Sky. During his time at Constantin Entertainment, he also served as Managing Director of the subsidiaries in Serbia, the Czech Republic and Romania, where he was responsible for globally successful formats such as KITCHEN NIGHTMARES and COME DINE WITH ME, among others.

Before Christian Meinberger joined LEONINE Studios as Chief Digital Officer in 2019, he held various management positions at ProSiebenSat.1 from 2006. During this time, he developed the pay TV channels as well as the programming and format strategy for the digital offerings of the broadcasting group. As co-founder of Studio71 Christian was responsible for the development, production and distribution of non-fiction content for VoD platforms, streaming services and TV channels. Christian is a multi-award-winning producer and pioneer for digital content, who already started developing formats at the age of fifteen and successfully positioned them with numerous German television broadcasters. To this day, his innovative concepts and cooperation with renowned talents continue to generate great media coverage and attention for his formats. His projects include the Grimme Award-nominated format LEFLOID VS. THE WORLD and multi-award-winning original formats such as #DEINEWAHL – with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Other professional stations in his career included ZDF, Viacom and RTL. He completed a degree in TV production management at the Bavarian Academy for Film and Television in Munich.

Gillad Osterer co-founded SEO Entertainment in 2008 and serves today as managing director. The company produces modern, creative and authentic television formats for private and public broadcasters in Germany and Europe. Gillad’s award-winning productions include the charming WDR format DAS LACHEN DER ANDEREN, for which German author Micky Beisenherz and stand-up comedian Oliver Polak have delved into completely unknown social environments. This docutainment won the German Television Award for Best Comedy in 2017. In the same year, the ProSieben show APPLAUS UND RAUS won the renowned Grimme Prize in the Entertainment competition. With the steadfast goal of wanting to create and shape

television, he first went to Hamburg and successfully graduated from the Hanseatische Medienakademie with a degree in media management. At the same time, he was already supervising his first TV shows at MTV/VH-1 and produced a large number of music videos as a producer and director. He then came to Munich, first as a producer at Janus Film and later at G.A.T. Film- und Fernsehproduktion, where he was responsible for high-quality television entertainment. Since 2021, SEO Entertainment has been part of the LEONINE Production segment, producing popular shows such as FEUER UND FLAMME for WDR and successfully developing and adapting innovative non-scripted formats, such as DOWN THE ROAD or THAT'S MY JAM.

Ulli Stoef started his career in the field of toys and games with Schmidt Spiele and held positions as Managing Director at Universal Studios Consumer Products Merchandising, Managing Director at CTM Concept-TV & Merchandising, Chief Executive Officer at m4e and Studio 100 Media as well as Chairman of the Group content committee. Ulli is also a producer and brand builder of many brands, including MIA AND ME, HUNTIK, HOW AND WHY TV, LEVEL Q TIP THE MOUSE, and many more.

Oliver Vogel is one of Germany’s leading fiction producers and has achieved impressive success in his long career. Over the past 12 years, he initially worked as a producer at Bavaria Fernsehproduktion, from 2010 as Managing Director at Colonia Media and from 2014 as Executive Vice President Programming at Bavaria Fernsehproduktion. From 2017-2020, he was Chief Creative Officer of Bavaria Fiction, where he was responsible for productions such as the internationally successful Sky series DAS BOOT, which won the GQ-Award, the German Television Award, the German Camera Award, the Bavarian Television Award, the Austrian Romy Television and Film Award, the New York TV & Film Award, the Magnolia Award of the Shanghai TV Festival, and the Golden Nymph Award of the Monte Carlo TV Festival, among others. He also produced the successful ARD series IN ALLER FREUNDSCHAFT, which has been on air for 24 seasons with over 900 episodes, the telenovela HERZFLIMMERN, as well as the series TIERÄRZTIN DR. MERTENS, RENTNERCOPS, SOKO STUTTGART and DR. KLEIN, for which he was awarded the German Fairness Award for the portrayal of diversity in film and television at the German Drama Awards in 2019. Among the TV series he has produced POLIZEIRUF 110, DENGLER for ZDF and KÄTHE UND ICH for ARD. At Bavaria Fiction’s Cologne location, he was also responsible for 10 years for the TATORT series based in Cologne, Münster, Dortmund and Saarbrücken.

Tina Wagner previously worked at RedSeven Entertainment as producer and executive producer and has developed and realized a variety of highly successful docutainment formats.

Her productions include OLD PEOPLE’S HOME FOR 4 YEAR OLDS and MARRIED AT FIRST SIGHT, which won the German Television Award, FIVE SENSES FOR LOVE, which was nominated for the German Television Award as well as MOMS MAKE PORN and KISS BANG LOVE.

Marcus Welke has been a producer at Wiedemann & Berg since 2022 and most recently oversaw the Warner Bros. Discovery series CASH (AT) and the Netflix film SPIELEABEND. Previously, he was a producer and partner at Film1 and Südstern Film and was responsible for feature films such as RUBBELDIEKATZ, LILA LILA and HEITER BIS WOLKIG.

Max Wiedemann is Chief Production Officer and Chief Business Development Officer of LEONINE Studios. He oversees all fiction productions and is responsible for the development and integration of new business areas.

Max Wiedemann studied production and media management from 1999 to 2003 at the University of Television and Film Munich. In 2003 he founded Wiedemann & Berg Film together with Quirin Berg, followed by W&B Television in 2010. As its Managing Director, shareholder and executive producer he has since been responsible for more than 120 cinema and television productions. These include the Oscar®-winning THE LIVES OF OTHERS, the two-time Oscar®-nominated NEVER LOOK AWAY, and multiple number one hits such as MEN IN THE CITY, WHO AM I, JOY OF FATHERHOOD, and WELCOME TO GERMANY.

TV projects include the cult series 4 BLOCKS (TNT Serie), PAGAN PEAK (Sky), and the first German Netflix Original, DARK, which was named Greatest Netflix Original Series by the leading US review site Rotten Tomatoes.

Max Wiedemann is a member of the German Film Academy, the European Film Academy as well as the British Film Academy. He was named Bavarian Entrepreneur of the Year and received numerous awards, including the European Film Award, the British Academy Film Award, the Austrian Film Award, the German Film Award, the Bavarian Film Prize, the German Television Prize, the Bavarian Television Award, the LA Critics Award, the Golden Camera, and the Bambi.

Andreas Zaik worked as a freelancer for public broadcaster WDR in Cologne before helping to launch Stern TV in 1990, initially as a reporter and chief of staff and from 1994 as editor-in-chief. In 2000 he became managing director of the production company i&u TV. For more than 32 years, the live TV show Stern TV has been airing every Wednesday in front of an audience of millions. Since 1996 Andreas Zaik has also been producing the RTL annual review MENSCHEN, BILDER, EMOTIONEN on behalf of i&u TV. From 2011 to 2015 he produced the political talk show GÜNTHER JAUCH for ARD, as well as numerous reports and documentaries for broadcasters such as ZDF, ARD, RTL, WDR and many more. Andreas Zaik can look back on a wealth of awards, including the German Television Award, the CNN Journalist Award, the Axel Springer Prize and the Golden Camera. Zaik is equally successful in the entertainment spectrum, winning the German Television Award and Bavarian Television Award for the 80s SHOW.

The successful show formats with Hape Kerkeling such as HAPE TRIFFT and the 70s SHOW have received awards including the German Comedy Award, Bavarian Television Award and German Television Award. In 2017, the ARD show SMALL VS. TALL won the Audience Award Bambi for Kai Pflaume as Best Presenter. In 2020, the widely-acclaimed RTL prime-time hit THEY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT WILL HAPPEN! won the German Television Award in the category Best Moderation/Individual Entertainment Performance. With i&u TV Andreas Zaik is also successful in the digital field. Since 2019, with BREAKING LAB, the most wide-reaching technology and science channel on YouTube or YOUTOPIA, the multi-day digital live-stream on the topic of sustainability with well-known YouTubers, such as BREAKING LAB host Jacob Beautemps. In the field of branded entertainment, the DIY-YouTube series MACH MAL MIT OBI was recently honored with awards, including Double Bronze at the German Digital Award.