Peter Kurth

Kurth was born on 4 April 1957 in Güstrow, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, East Germany. Growing up in Goldberg, he frequently visited the local movie theater, later citing it as an influence on his decision to become an actor. He attended the state drama school in Rostock from 1978 to 1981. After graduating from drama school, Kurth performed at Theater für junge Leute in Magdeburg from 1981 to 1984 and at Theater der Altmark in Stendal from 1984 to 1988. He then moved to Karl-Marx-Stadt (Chemnitz), where he performed at Städtisches Theater. In 1997, Kurth joined the Schauspiel Leipzig in Leipzig, where he also taught drama. He moved to Hamburg in 2000 to perform at the Thalia Theater. He joined the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin in 2006, and later transferred to the Stuttgart Drama Theater.

Kurth was named Actor of the Year by the German theater magazine Theater heute in 2014. He won the German Film Award for Best Actor, as well as the Deutscher Schauspielpreis (German Actor Award), for the 2015 film A Heavy Heart in which he played Herbert, a boxer diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Kurth prepared extensively for the role, gaining 35 pounds (16 kg) in the months before filming to physically resemble a former boxer, before losing his newly gained weight over the course of the 35-day shoot to portray Herbert's ALS progression. Scott Roxborough of The Hollywood Reporter called Kurth's portrayal of Herbert an "acting master class".

In 2018, Kurth was nominated for the Deutscher Fernsehpreis award for Best Actor, for his role as Detective Bruno Wolter in the German neo-noir television series Babylon Berlin.