Anke Engelke

Anke Engelke
Engelke on the red carpet of the German Film Awards in Berlin, 2019
Born	Anke Christina Engelke (1965-12-21) 21 December 1965 Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Nationality	German, Canadian
Other names	Anke Christina Fischer
Occupation(s)	Comedian, actress, TV presenter
Years active	1979–present
Spouses	Andreas Grimm ​ ​ (m. 1994; div. 2005)​ Claus Fischer ​ ​ (m. 2005; div. 2015)​
Children	3

Anke Christina Fischer (née Engelke; born 21 December 1965) is a German comedian, actress, voice actress and television presenter.

Personal life

Born in Montreal, Canada, Engelke moved to Cologne, Germany in 1971 with her German parents. Early on, she exhibited singing talent, and was discovered in 1978 by Georg Bossert at a performance of her school's choir.

From 1994 to 2000, Engelke was married to the keyboardist Andreas Grimm with whom she has a daughter. She was married to musician Claus Fischer from 2005 to 2015, with whom she has two sons.

Career

From 1979 to 1986, she was the presenter of the daily children's television show broadcast from the Funkausstellung (a German radio exhibition, held every other year in Berlin), and the weekly children and youth's sports magazine show Pfiff. From 1978 to 1980, she hosted the show Moment mal (Wait a minute) on RTL. SWF3 first brought her on board in 1986 as an editor; later on, she was the presenter there until 1998. She has sung with Fred Kellner und die famosen Soul Sisters since 1989. Since 1993, she has been part of the SWF3-Comedy-Ensemble Gagtory.

From 1996 to 2000, she was part of Die Wochenshow on Sat.1, a rather famous comedy TV show in Germany at that time, alongside Bastian Pastewka, Ingolf Lück and Marco Rima.

In 2003, Engelke and Olli Dittrich were awarded the Grimme-Preis for the improv show Blind Date 2 – Taxi nach Schweinau.

In December 2003, Engelke provided the voice of the fish Dory in the German dubbing of the animated film Finding Nemo, which is voiced by Ellen DeGeneres in the English original. She also provided the voice of Jane Porter in the German dubbing of the Disney movie Tarzan, who is voiced by Minnie Driver in the original version.

Engelke can also be seen in the successful sketch comedy show Ladykracher on Sat.1. On 17 May 2004, when the very successful Die Harald Schmidt Show left Sat.1, Engelke took over its timeslot with Anke Late Night, which was cancelled due to low ratings a few months later on 21 October 2004.

Engelke has been the German voice of Marge Simpson on The Simpsons since her predecessor Elisabeth Volkmann died in the summer of 2006. Elisabeth Volkmann was Marge's German voice for 15 years until her death. Engelke's first episode was "My Fair Laddy", which aired in Germany on 21 January 2007.

Engelke performing in 2008

In December 2009, she hosted the European Film Awards ceremony, a role she would repeat in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

In May 2011, she hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Düsseldorf alongside Stefan Raab and Judith Rakers.

The following year, Engelke served as the spokesperson for Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 held in Baku, Azerbaijan. Before presenting the votes, she also gave a live statement on the human-rights issues in the hosting country, saying: "Tonight nobody could vote for their own country. But it is good to be able to vote. And it is good to have a choice. Good luck on your journey, Azerbaijan. Europe is watching you." She was the only spokesperson to articulately address human rights during the event. She had also served as one of Germany's national juries for the contest during that year.

In February 2013, her involvement with the Eurovision Song Contest continued as she hosted Unser Song für Malmö, the German national final.

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2000	Bundle of Joy	Christine
2001	Der Schuh des Manitu	Abahachi and Winnetouch's mother	(extended edition)
	The Little Polar Bear	Mutter Eisbär	(voice)
2003	Operation Dance Sensation	Veronica Rell
	Just Get Married!	Ina
	Finding Nemo	Dory	Voice (German dub)
2004	Germanikus	Senator's wife
	Der Wixxer	Doris Dubinsky
2005	About the Looking for and the Finding of Love	Helena Stokowski
	The Little Polar Bear 2: The Mysterious Island	Iguanita/Frieda	(voice)
2006	Urmel aus dem Eis	Wutz
	Oh, wie schön ist Panama	Fish
2007	The Simpsons Movie	Marge Simpson
	Vollidiot	Owl
2008	Urmel voll in Fahrt	Wutz	(voice)
	Freche Mädchen	Mila's mother
2009	Lippels Traum	Frau Jakob / Böse Tante
2010	Freche Mädchen 2	Mila's mother
2015	Frau Müller muss weg!	Jessica Höfel
	Ghosthunters on Icy Trails	Hetty Cuminseed
2017	Happy Burnout	Alexandra
	Nur ein Tag	(voice)
2018	The Most Beautiful Girl in the World	Cyril's mother
2021	My Son	Marlene
2023	The Interpreter of Silence	Edith Bruhns

Television

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1996–2000	Die Wochenshow	Host and sketches	German Television Award for Best Entertainment Program shared with Ingolf Lück, Bastian Pastewka, Markus Maria Profitlich, Ralf Guenther and Josef Ballerstaller (1999) German Comedy Award for Best Comedy/Variety Show shared with Josef Ballerstaller, Rainer Bender, Ralf Guenther, Ingolf Lück, Bastian Pastewka and Marco Rima (1999) Goldene Kamera-Audience Camera (1999) Adolf Grimme Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement (1999)
1997	Tatort	Anke	Episode: "Tod im All"
1998	...und im Keller gärt es		Episodes: "Umbau", "Klapsmühle", "Prinz"
2001	Blind Date	Yvonne
2000–2001	Anke	Anke	German Comedy Award for Best Female Comedian (2000–2001)
2002	Blind Date 2 – Taxi nach Schweinau	Ruth	Bavarian TV Award shared with Olli Dittrich (2003) Adolf Grimme Award in Gold for Fiction/Entertainment shared with Olli Dittrich (2003) Nominated-German Television Award for Best Comedy Program shared with Olli Dittrich (2002)
	Blind Date 3 – Der fünfbeinige Elefant	Constanze Pillmann
2002–2010	Ladykracher	Various Roles	German Television Award for Best Comedy Program (2002, 2011) German Comedy Award for Best Female Comedian (2002) German Comedy Award for Best Comedy/Variety Show shared Ralf Guenther and Josef Ballerstaller Golden Rose for Best Performance – Comedy – Female (2004) Nominated-German Comedy Award for Best Comedian (2003) Nominated-Goldene Kamera for Best Entertainment Show (2009)
2003	Lindenstraße	Conny / Moderatorin	Episode: "Heldentum"
	Blind Date 4 – London, Moabit	Caroline
2004	Blind Date 5 – Blaues Geheimnis	Sonja Mette
	Anke Late Night	Host and sketches	43 episodes
2005	Blind Date 6 – Tanzen verboten	Elke
2006–2007	LadyLand	Andrea Steinkamp / various other roles	11 episodes
2006–2009	Pastewka	Anke Engelke	3 episodes
2007–present	The Simpsons	Marge Simpson	German voice
2007	Fröhliche Weihnachten	Anneliese / Mario Barth / Nina Hagen / Shakira / various other roles	German Comedy Award for Best Comedy Event shared with Bastian Pastewka (2008) Bavarian TV Award shared with Bastian Pastewka (2008) Adolf Grimme Award for Entertainment shared with Bastian Pastewka (2008) Nominated-German Television Award for Best Comedy shared with Bastian Pastewka (2008)
2007–2010	Komissarin Lucas	Rike	8 episodes
2008	Mitternachtsspitzen	Amy Winehouse / Frau Schmickler	Episode: "20 Jahre Mitternachtsspitzen"
2009	Fröhliche Weihnachten II	Various roles
	22nd European Film Awards	Host
2010	23rd European Film Awards	Host	with Märt Avandi
2011	Fröhlicher Frühling	Various roles
	Eurovision Song Contest 2011	Host	with Stefan Raab and Judith Rakers German Television Award for Best Entertainment Program (2011)
	24th European Film Awards
2012	Eurovision Song Contest 2012	Herself	Spokesperson presenting German votes. National jury for Germany.
	25th European Film Awards	Host
2013	Unser Song für Malmö	Host
	Anke hat Zeit	Host	Originally titled Helge hat Zeit and presented by Helge Schneider who terminated his version of the show after 2 episodes
2018	Deutschland 86	Barbara Dietrich	7 episodes
2020	The Last Word	Karla Fazius	6 episodes

Video games

Year	Game	Voice role	Notes
2007	The Simpsons Game	Marge Simpson	German voice

Audiobooks

• 2009: Heike Faller: Wie ich einmal versuchte, reich zu werden, publisher: Random House Audio, ISBN 978-3-8371-7610-0
• 2013: Felix Salten: Bambi: Eine Lebensgeschichte aus dem Walde, publisher: tacheles, ISBN 978-3864840289

External links

• Brainpool's Anke Engelke page (in German)
• Article on sbznet.de: "Late-Night-Talk: Anke macht's für Harald" (23 December 2003) (in German)
• Anke Engelke at IMDb
• Zeit (14/2004) Interview with Anke Engelke at the beginning of her Late-Night-Show (in German)
• Zeit (01/2005) Interview with Anke Engelke near the end of her Late-Night-Show (in German)
• Anke Engelke: Interview(Germany)
• Anke Engelke at the German Dubbing Card Index (in German)