Early years Annika Blendl grew up with five siblings. She began her artistic career as a student, studying
violin, and won first place twice in the nationwide youth competition
Jugend musiziert. After graduating, she moved from Cologne to Berlin to pursue acting, following the example of her older sister
Mareile. She initially filmed commercials and worked as a model for various fashion brands. In 2004, after meeting director
Schorsch Kamerun at the
Zurich Schauspielhaus, she collaborated with him on a theatrical adaptation of
The Snow Queen, based on
Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale.
Film and television Without formal acting training, Blendl received her first television roles in 2002, debuting as Lisa Nordbrock in the television film
Love Crash. Blendl took roles in feature films such as
Michael Klier's
Farland (2004),
Christian Petzold's
Ghosts (2005), and
Stephan Geene's
After Effect (2007). She closed 2008 with the title role in
Matthias Tiefenbacher's TV crime drama
The Beauty by the Poolside of the ZDF series
Ein starkes Team and a guest role in
Polizeiruf 110 directed by
Alain Gsponer. In addition, she played lead roles in the directorial debut and graduation films
Maria am Wasser by
Thomas Wendrich (2006) and
Transit by
Philipp Leinemann (2010). In 2007, Blendl starred in her first continuous lead role as
Sophie Heise in the four-part crime series
Donna Roma. From 2014 to 2020, she appeared alongside
Pasquale Aleardi as police secretary
Nolwenn in the ARD crime series
Kommissar Dupin. Since October 2019, Blendl has starred as
Detective Pia Walther, grieving the loss of her husband under the leadership of
Maike Riems (
Anja Kling) in the ZDF crime series
Das Quartett.
Director and producer In 2009, Blendl began studying documentary film directing at the
University of Television and Film Munich and in 2012 co-founded the
Man on Mars Filmproduktion (Blendl Schmitt Stade GbR) with director
Michael Schmitt and actress
Leonie Stade. Here, the feature documentary ''
Mollath – "And Suddenly You're Crazy"'', which covers the
Gustl Mollath case, was produced in 2015. Blendl's graduation project at the HFFM, the feature film with documentary elements
All I never wanted, co-directed with Leonie Stade, was also produced by her company. == Personal life ==