Hape Kerkeling

A film about his childhood was released in 2018, titled Der Junge muss an die frische Luft, based on his semi-autographic book, with the main character played by Julius Weckauf.

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

In March 2011 Kerkeling announced that he and Colagrossi were getting a divorce.

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 2009 Kerkeling announced a mockumentary about Horst Schlämmer running for German Chancellor. It was scheduled to be released to cinemas in Germany shortly before the German federal election of 2009. According to a BBC piece, Horst Schlämmer would receive 18% of the German vote due partly to his Obama inspired slogan, "Yes weekend".

In 2007 a computer game "Weisse Bescheid?!", based on Horst Schlämmer, was released.

The single Schätzelein came out at the start of 2006, including the songs Schätzelein and Meine letzte Zigarette (My last cigarette).

In May 2006 Schlämmer appeared on Wer wird Millionär (the German Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?) as a celebrity candidate, and became the first person to persuade Günther Jauch, the presenter of Wer wird Millionär, into the contestant's seat. The two made 500,000 euro for a good cause (German AIDS Foundation).

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.

Since spring 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 January 2004 Kerkeling made another film entitled 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.

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 3 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.

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 the second half of the 90s, 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 1992 Kerkeling's first film came out: Kein Pardon [de] , 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 immensely 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.

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.

On 10 December 1991, in a German television talkshow, the filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim revealed that Kerkeling, among others, was gay. Kerkeling's comment on the ensuing fuss (mostly in the gutter press) was that while anyone of a more sensitive nature than him would probably have climbed into the bath with a hairdryer, he could not see the point: they would be dragging another poor soul through the dirt the next day anyway.

Siegfried (Siggi) Schwäbli is a character who first appeared in 1990 in some episodes of Total Normal. Slow-witted, short-sighted and with glasses made of plastic blocks, Siggi constantly puts his foot in it and often has no idea what is going on. At the Cannstatter Volksfest festival in Stuttgart, for example, he went on the ghost train with Barbara Schöneberger, a TV host, and almost passed out with fear.

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.

The real breakthrough came in 1984/85 when, still aged only 19, Kerkeling 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.

Gisela has recently been discovered by Horst Schlaemmer to act in commercials for Krueger Coffee. She has been happily married to her husband, Wolfgang since 1983.

Hans Peter Wilhelm "Hape" Kerkeling (German pronunciation: [ˈhaːpə ˈkɛʁkəlɪŋ] ; born 9 December 1964, in Recklinghausen, Germany) is a German actor, presenter and comedian of Dutch descent.