Theatre

Ferch's first job after completing his studies was at the Freie Volksbühne Berlin. He was an ensemble player from 1987 to 1990, under the direction of Hans Neuenfels amongst others.

From 1990 to 1994 he was ensemble player at the Schiller Theatre, Berlin (Die Räuber; Mockinpott; Kasimir und Karoline; As you like it - director: Katharina Thalbach).

In 1992 he appeared at the Theater des Westens in Der Blaue Engel (screenplay after a novel by Heinrich Mann) under the direction of Peter Zadek.

He also appeared as guest actor at the Salzburg Festival (Un re in ascolto; Jedermann; Macbeth; Il ritorno d´Ulisse), at the Scala Milan and at the Burgtheater Vienna (Die Geisel).

Film

In 1987 Ferch made his feature film debut with a brief appearance in Schloß Königswald (directed by Peter Schamoni). In 1989 he played his first leading part in Wedding (which is the name of a Berlin working class quarter), as runner gone amok Klaus Asmus (director: Heiko Schier).

In 1994 he followed among many others works, a part in the notable TV-mini production Deutschlandlied (directed by Tom Toelle) where he played the part of Hanno Schmidbauer, a young cabinet maker at the end of World War II.

In 1996 he appeared as Napola-Commander Obersturmbannfuehrer Raufeisen in The Ogre (quote by Oscar award winner, director Volker Schloendorff: "…the young sympathetic social climber Raufeisen, wonderfully portraied by Heino Ferch..").

1997 was the year of his breakthrough as a film actor with his appearance as Jewish singer Roman Cycowski in The Harmonists (director: Josef Vilsmaier), a famous German a cappella singing ensemble of the early 1930s.

In 1997 he also played the leading part in Winter Sleepers, an early work by director Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run, The Parfume)

In 1997 Ferch portrayed no less than nine different movie characters. In seven of these he played the leading role or co-lead. (Comedian Harmonists, Winter Sleepers, Life is All You Get, Play for your life, The Guardian Angel, Coma, Buddies, Lucie Aubrac, It happened at broad daylight)

In 1998 he starred as gangster Ronnie in Tom Tykwer`s breakthrough movie Run Lola Run.

In 2001 the TV-mini series The Tunnel (director: Roland Suso Richter) focused on the dramatic escape of 32 persons from the GDR.^[1] It received seven film awards and was sold to more than 28 countries. Ferch received the Golden Camera award as best actor for his role as Harry Melchior, a fictional figure based on real-life escapee Hasso Herschel.

In 2004 the film The Downfall (director: Oliver Hirschbiegel) was released. It received an Oscar nomination and was subsequently sold to 145 countries around the world. In this film Ferch played Hitler's architect and Minister for Armaments, Albert Speer.

After the turn of the millennium the German film production company teamworx started a new TV-format: the so-called event movies. Striking events form German history are combined with semi fictional story telling „making the past come alive" (teamworx-claim) (e.g. The Tunnel, The Airlift, Dresden, Storm Tide). Heino Ferch repeatedly spearheaded this format as featuring lead actor.

In 2005 eight million German viewers watched the TV-event The Airlift with Heino Ferch starring as American General Philipp Turner, a fictional character after General William H. Tunner, the organizer of the air-supply bridge in 1948/49 for the locked-in city of Berlin. The film received the Golden Camera award as best TV film of the year and was sold for transmission into 43 countries.

Heino Ferch as Marquis de Caulaincourt in "Napoléon"

In 2007 he starred in the teamworx production of The Hunt for Troy, the story of German businessman and amateur archeologist Heinrich Schliemann's search for the treasures of Homer's ancient Troy. The film aired in 32 countries. Ferch played the title role.

Heino Ferch also appears regularly in leading parts in smaller productions – often high quality thrillers. Most of these received various film awards. (e.g. The lawyer and his guest, The account, Hell in the head, Killing at seaside, Hunt for Justice.) Now (2013) gets his role in the Italian serie My Heaven Will Wait as Frederick Khoner. He also has character parts in European co-productions and in Canada, namely as Lucie Aubrac (directed by Claude Berri), Julius Caesar (directed by Uli Edel), Napoléon (dir.: Yves Simoneau), The Seagull's Laughter (dir: Ágúst Guðmundson), Hunt for Justice (dir.: Charles Binamé) The Trojan Horse – H2O Part II (dir: Charles Binamé) and D´Artagnan et les trois Mousquetaires (dir.: Prierre Aknine) helped to establish the German actor's visibility in an international setting.

Ferch also did voice acting, performing the German dubbing voices for Agent Classified (Benedict Cumberbatch) in The Penguins of Madagascar and Ernesto de la Cruz (Benjamin Bratt) in Coco.