Hape Kerkeling

At secondary school in Recklinghausen, Hape Kerkeling and some fellow students formed a band (Gesundfutter, meaning: health food) and published a record (Hawaii).

Kerkeling started his career as a comedian in radio, working for various German broadcasting companies, such as WDR and BR.

His breakthrough came in 1984/85 when, still aged only 19, he got a role in the Känguru [sic] television comedy show (the German word for kangaroo deliberately spelt without an "h" at the end although this broke the spelling rules at that time). The best-known character in this show was the little boy Hannilein, played by Kerkeling, an irritating child with red hair in a pudding-basin style, dungarees and sitting on giant-sized chairs, who commented on the world of adults.

Later came guest appearances and sketches on the Radio Bremen show Extratour. Then in 1989, Kerkeling started up his own comedy TV show, Total Normal (Totally Normal), along with pianist Achim Hagemann. This show, a satirical spoof on prime-time TV shows, had a totally new format and was awarded several television prizes such as the Goldene Kamera, the Adolf-Grimme-Preis and the Bayerischer Fernsehpreis. On the show, Kerkeling made television history on 25 April 1991 when he dressed up as Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands on a state visit to Berlin and almost managed to get into Schloss Bellevue to meet the President of Germany for lunch. The satirical song from this show, Das ganze Leben ist ein Quiz (All life is a quiz), made it into the German pop charts.

In 1992, Kerkeling's first film came out: Kein Pardon, which he directed and starred in, as well as helping to write the script.

In 1992, Kerkeling turned down an offer by the big public broadcasting company ZDF to work on the popular prime-time show Wetten, dass..? and instead, without his previous partner Hagemann, moved to the independent television sector with the show Cheese. This was similar in concept to Total Normal and viewing figures were relatively high; still this is considered as his first flop.

In the second half of the 1990s, Kerkeling worked once more for ARD, presenting the show Warmumsherz (Heartwarming), and filmed several television films (Club Las Piranjas (1995), Willi und die Windzors, 1996; Die Oma ist tot, 1997).

In 1999, Kerkeling returned to success with his Sat.1 show Darüber lacht die Welt (What makes the world laugh). He also presented the yearly fundraising gala for the German AIDS fund Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe. In 2003, he was awarded the Deutscher Fernsehpreis (German Television Prize) in the category Best Entertainment Presenter.

In January 2004, Kerkeling made another film titled Samba in Mettmann, which is set in Mettmann in North Rhine Westphalia. In May 2004, and a year later in May 2005, he presented the Großer Deutsch-Test (a national test show for German grammar and spelling) and in October 2004 the Großer Deutschlandtest (a test about people's knowledge of Germany). In April and May 2006, he presented the live TV show Let's Dance, the German version of Strictly Come Dancing/Dancing with the Stars, with Nazan Eckes.

German broadcaster ZDF started the production of Kerkeling's Ein Mann, ein Fjord! (A Man, A Fjord!) in May 2008, directed by Angelo Colagrossi and written by Kerkeling, Angelo Colagrossi and Angelina Maccarone. Starring Jürgen Tarrach, Anneke Kim Sarnau, Matthias Brandt and Horst Krause the film portrays Kerkeling as Horst Schlämmer, Uschi Blum and Gisela. The movie premiered on 21 January 2009, on ZDF.

In a survey by the television station Kabel 1 in 2005, Kerkeling made it into the top ten favourite faces on German television; the only other two presenters were Günther Jauch and Thomas Gottschalk.

In 2001, Kerkeling went on a pilgrimage, following the Way of St James for 650 kilometres (400 mi) to Santiago de Compostela. In June 2006, his book Ich bin dann mal weg (I'm off for a bit, then), his diary of this pilgrimage, was top of the Spiegel magazine non-fiction bestseller list. By May 2008, it had sold three million copies. It appeared in English in 2009 with the title I'm Off Then: Losing and Finding Myself on the Camino De Santiago. It has also been translated into French, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Latvian, Spanish, and Chinese.

Since early 2005, Kerkeling has presented the show Hape trifft! (which is ambiguous in the German language and may be translated as Hape hits the spot! or Hape meets!) show, produced by Günther Jauch's production team i&u TV on RTL.

In 2013, Kerkeling spoke and sang the German version of Olaf, a snowman from the new Disney movie Frozen.

A film about his childhood was released in 2018, titled All About Me, based on his semi-autographic book, with the main character played by Julius Weckauf. The film biography by Oscar-winning director Caroline Link was well-received by film critics and the most successful German film of 2018 in German cinemas, selling over 3.8 tickets.

In 2024, an article in Süddeutsche Zeitung described his efforts to research his ancestry, which led to the suggestion that he is a possible descendant of Edward VII of England.