Ken Duken was born on April 17, 1979, in Heidelberg, Germany, to an actress mother, Christina Loeb, and a doctor. He began learning acting from his mother and later took courses from James Reynolds and Bruce McDonald. Despite never attending drama school, he started his career on television in 1997.
Before television, Ken acted in various stage plays, including "Visit from an old Lady." In 1998, he landed his first leading role in the film "Land of Milk and Honey," alongside Franka Potente and Heiner Lauterbach. He received praise from BILD, Germany's largest daily paper, as a "Shootingstar" with great talent and charisma.
In 2000, Ken played the role of Mark, a young man confined to a wheelchair, in the film "Gran Paradiso." The film was nominated for the German Film Award. He continued to work on various German productions, including "Nightshift" and "100 per cent."
Throughout the last years, Ken has worked on international productions, alongside notable actors such as Peter O'Toole, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Max von Sydow, and Dominique Pinon. One of his notable films is "Hidden Children," which won the French Movie-Award at the 18th "Reincontres de Television de Reims."
In 2003, Ken co-founded the film production company "Grand Hotel Pictures" with friends. The company's debut film, "From another Point of View," premiered in Munich in 2004, starring his wife Marisa Leonie Bach and Dominique Pinon.
In 2005, Ken played the leading role in the film "Another league," for which he won the award for best actor at the Comedy-Festival in Monte Carlo. He also appeared in the Italian production "Karol," which achieved an audience rating of 47% in Italy and was more successful than "Star Wars 3" or "War of the worlds" in Poland.
In March 2005, Ken was awarded the Grimme Award for his role in "Kiss and Run" before starting filming "Störtebeker" in May 2005. He played the character Teddy Schrader in Lars Becker's "Nightshift" and later appeared in the international production "War & Peace" based on the novel by Tolstoj.
After leading roles in the movies "Distanz" and "Gellert," which were produced by Grand Hotel Pictures, Ken took part in the Italian production "Il Commissario de Luca" and played Ben Winter, a war returnee from Afghanistan in the TV movie "Willkommen zuhause." In 2008, he won his second Grimme Award for "Eine andere Liga" and the Franz Hofer Award.
In the same year, Ken played the lead role in the fairy tale "Koenig Drosselbart," co-starred with Gary Dourdan in the international production "Fire," played the leading role in "Das Unglueck von Ueberlingen," and took part in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglorious Basterds." In 2009, he won the "Bayerischen Fernsehpreis" for "Willkommen zuhause" in the category "best actor TV-movie."
