Franka Potente was born on 22 July 1974 in the German city of Münster, to Hildegard, a medical assistant, and Dieter Potente, a teacher, and raised in the nearby town of Dülmen. After her graduation in 1994, she went to the Otto-Falckenberg-Schule, a drama school in Munich, but soon broke off to study at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York. After a notable debut in Nach Fünf im Urwald (1995), the role of the heroine in Run Lola Run (1998), directed by her then longtime companion Tom Tykwer was her national breakthrough. After some other successful movies in Germany, she starred in several Hollywood productions, most prominently The Bourne Identity (2002) and The Bourne Supremacy (2004) and lived one year in Los Angeles. After her return to Berlin, she continues working with German and international directors. After graduating from high school, she moved to Munich. Here she began studying acting at the Otto Falckenberg School in 1994. After two years she dropped out and took a course at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute in New York. Potente starred in small productions at the University of Film and Television and then became famous overnight. She was approached in a Munich club and discovered during the casting for the hit comedy "After Five in the Jungle". This first film role in 1995 was also her breakthrough. She played the runaway "Anna" and received the "Bavarian Film Prize" for "Best Young Actress". This was followed by TV productions such as "Coming In" alongside Steffen Wink and the two-part "Opernball", which she shot with Heiner Lauterbach. In 1998 she played her way into the hearts of viewers with the title role in Tom Tykwer's "Lola Runs". As the red-haired "Lola," she made the film the most internationally successful German feature film of the 1990s. "Lola Run" received numerous awards, including the "Filmband in Gold" from the German Film Prize in Berlin. Franka Potente was also honored with the "Audience Prize". In 1998 she was voted "German Shooting Star" of the "European Film Promotion" at the Berlinale together with Jürgen Vogel and was able to win one of the coveted "Bambis". The following year she appeared in three films, including appearing in front of the camera together with Heiner Lauterbach for the action thriller "Clandina of Schlaraffen". In 2000 she played in the thriller "Anatomy" with Benno Fürmann and also had a role in Tom Tykwer's "The Warrior + the Empress". This year she made her breakthrough in Hollywood. She was the love interest of Hollywood star Johnny Depp in the film "Blow" and was able to film with another top star the following year. For the spy film ''The Bourne Identity''' she played with Matt Damon in Paris and Prague. The sequel "The Bourne Conspiracy" followed in 2004.