Gabrielle Scharnitzky, of east-prussian descent, was born in a small Bavarian town in Germany. The third and youngest daughter of Egon G. Scharnitzky, a landscape architect, and Apollonia Bösl, a secretary, Gabrielle always found ways to express herself through acting, dancing, singing or ice-skating. 9 years old, she won her first award – a green stuffed frog – for her first theatre play she had written, directed and acted in. However her first profession was to become a travel agent. After finishing her apprenticeship in Bavaria, she started working for Pan American Airways at Berlin Tegel-Airport.
Her first encounter with Hollywood was in 1984, when she had a one-liner opposite Matt Dillon in Arthur Penn’s Thriller “Target”. This moment changed her life. 29 years old, she stopped working for Pan Am and started to study acting in New York and Rome with prolific acting coaches such as Susan Batson, Geraldine Baron, Uta Hagen, Diane Kagan, Sam Christensen, Dominic de Fazio.
Since then Scharnitzky has appeared in international feature films, including “Mesmer” opposite Alan Rickman; Catherine Hardwicke’s “The Nativity Story” opposite Oscar Isaac and Keisha Castle-Hughes; Oscar Roehler’s “Punk Berlin 1982” opposite Tom Schilling; and Italian films including Carlo Vanzina’s comedy “Un matrimonio da favola” and as protagonist Suzanne Valtenghi opposite legendary Italian actor Arnoldo Foá (in one of his last roles) in Pasquale Marrazzo’s feature film “Fast Souls”
On television Scharnitzky appeared in BBC shows such as “The Game” opposite Tom Hughes; “Bonekickers” opposite Hugh Bonneville, Julie Graham and Gugu Mbatha-Raw; as well as in German series, including the famous German version of “Ugly Betty” known as “Verliebt in Berlin” which won a German Television Award and a Rose d ‘Or and was sold to 27 countries.
Scharnitzky appears in the main-cast of the first season of “Treadstone” as the no-nonsense russian patriot Petra.
The show started to air Oct 2019 on USA Network and is available on Amazon Prime worldwide January 2020-
She will soon be seen in the part of Antonia Kessler opposite Patrick Dempsey, in the upcoming TV Series “Devils” – “I Diavoli” produced by Lux Vide, directed by Nick Hurran and Jan Michelini, Casting Director Daniel Hubbard.
In 1999 Scharnitzky founded her own acting Studio – The Actors Lodge Berlin that is frequented by actors, writers, directors, singers and dancers.. She also loves to support young film directors with her acting, i.e. helmer Sinje Koehler. Her short “Blue Summer Symphony” won a Student Academy Award Nomination in 2017.
Gabrielle Scharnitzky is represented by Crawford Talents in Berlin, Germany.
