Johannes Silberschneider studied at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna, going on to engagements in cities including Zurich, Hamburg, Munich, Berlin and Graz. He has worked with directors including Peter Zadek, August Everding, Brian Michaels, Ruth Drexel, Hans Hollmann, Dieter Giesing, Arie Zinger and Peter Palitzsch. In Jedermann at the Salzburg Festival, he played Ein armer Nachbar (A Poor Neighbour) in 2013 and Glaube (Faith) in 2017 and 2018.
In the 2018/19 season he had great success as Josef in Peter Turrini’s Josef und Maria and as Jacobowsky in Franz Werfel’s Jacobowsky und der Oberst at the Theater in der Josefstadt in Vienna. From 2022 to 2024 he performed the role of Frosch (Die Fledermaus) at the Vienna State Opera.
He began his international film and television career in 1981 with Axel Corti’s television film trilogy Wohin und zurück. Subsequent projects included Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001) alongside Ben Kingsley, Luisa Sanfelice (2004) alongside Laetitia Casta, La niña de tus ojos with Penelope Cruz and François Ozon’s Frantz (2016).
He also appeared in Harald Sicheritz’s series 11er Haus (2005), in Niki Stein’s Rommel (2012), in Wolfgang Murnberger’s Alles Schwindel (2013) and Das ewige Leben (2014), in Manfred Corrine’s documentary Liebe, Geld und Macht — Maximilian I (2017), in Marc-Andreas Bochert’s Küss die Hand, Krüger (2018), in two episodes of Blind ermittelt and in Gabriela Zerhau’s Ein Dorf wehrt sich (2019). He played the homeless man Rudi in the Austrian crime series Trautmann. In 2025 he appeared as Friedrich ‘Fritz’ Breitmoser in Tatort: Der Elektriker.
His notable cinema film roles include the lead in Michael Kreihsl’s Charms Zwischenfälle (1996), the Teacher in Michael Haneke’s Kafka film adaption Das Schloß (The Castle, 1997) and Hans Moser in Oskar Roehler’s Jud Süß — Film ohne Gewissen (2010). From 2012 to 2015 he starred in the fantasy film trilogy Rubinrot, Saphirblau and Smaragdgrün. In November 2026 he will appear in the cinema film Kochschule Schwarz, directed by Dani Levy.
Johannes Silberschneider has been nominated several times for Austria’s Nestroy Theatre Prize. In 2012 he was awarded the Grand Diagonale Acting Award for services to Austrian film culture, and in 2014 he received the Grand Josef Krainer Prize.
