Daniel Zillmann gave his cinematic screen debut in “NVA” directed by Leander Haussmann in 2005. This was followed by the feature films “Buddy”,directed by Bully Herbig, “Zettl” by Helmut Dietl, “The Girl with Nine Wigs” by Marc Rothemund and “The Wild Soccer Bunch” by Joachim Masannek.Zilmann shows his varied repertoire of drama and comedy not only in film and on stage but also lends his voice as a dubbing actor. His roles have included Pumbaa in "The Lion King", Clawhauser in "Zootopia", Murray in "Hotel Transylvania" and Wasabi in "Baymax".

 

In 2014 Frank Castorf discovered him for “Volksbühne Berlin”. Since then Daniel Zillmann has played the double role of Mrs. Solness and Ragnar Brovik in the play “The Master Builder” directed by Frank Castorf, Alexej in Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov“ and Zacharie Moyron in “Die Kabale der Scheinheiligen".

 

2015 he made the ZDF short series “The Same Sky” directed by Oliver Hierschbiegel, which premiered at Berlinale Series Special 2017.​2017 the actor was seen in “The Same Sky” and “Metalfarm“ by Holger Haase, as well as “Der König von Berlin” by Lars Kraume and „Charlies Weg“ by Philipp Eich­holtz. Ever active, he gave his debut at “Schauspielhaus Hamburg” with the play ”Ich kann nicht mehr” under the direction of René Pollesch and as Monsieur Bordenave in Frank Castorf's “Faust” at “Volksbühne Berlin”.

 

His last play at Volksbühne was „Das schwache Herz“ because he had to step in last minute for a sick colleague. So the premiere of the play was the first run-through for him. The press celebrated his performance frenetic. This was followed by the shooting for the film “Li­lia­ne Sus­e­wind”, “Löwenzahn” and the ZDF movie “Schattengrund”.

 

Once again he worked together with Frank Castorf for the play "Der haarige Affe" at Schauspielhaus Hamburg in 2018. Afterwards Daniel Zillmann was part of Frank Castorfs play “Hunger”, adapted from a novel by Knut Hamsuns, at the Salzburg Festival. T

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In summer 2018, Daniel Zillmann took on one of the leading roles in the new ZDFneo series "Tanken - Alles außer super". For his performance, he received a nomination for Best Actor National for the Jupiter Award. He also appeared in front of the camera under the direction of Dani Levy for the bestseller adaptation "The Kangaroo Chronicles". Daniel Zillmann also filmed the series "Other Parents" for TNT Comedy.

The mocumentary with improv elements has been broadcast on TNT Comedy on SKY Germany since March 2019. At the end of 2019, Daniel Zillmann starred as Jasna Fritzi Bauer's flatmate in the new VOX series "Rampensau", directed by Dustin Loose. Also in 2019, he started writing his own column "My fabulous life as a fat actor" for Curvy Mag.

In 2020, the actor appeared in the second season of "Other Parents" on TNT Comedy as well as in "The Kangaroo Chronicles" in the cinema. Since the spring of the same year, Daniel Zillmann supported the KARUNA social cooperative as an ambassador and has been involved in various projects.  

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In 2021, he was in front of the camera for the cinema film "Die Känguru-Chroniken II", the ZDFneo series "Ich dich auch!" and "Löwenzahn", among others. At Christmas 2022, the actor could be seen as Duke Kunz the Schlemmer in the ZDF fairytale film "Zwerg Nase". 

The actor celebrated his theatre comeback at the Volksbühne Berlin with "SMAK! SuperMacho AntiKristo". Since 4 June 2022 Daniel Zillmann is in the play "Auslöschung. Ein Zerfall" directed by Karin Henkel at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. He also appeared in the second part of the Kangaroo Chronicles as Walter Feldmann in summer 2022.

 

In 2023, Daniel Zillmann impressed as drag queen Tanja (also with his singing talent) in the Amazon Prime series "Luden". On 26 May, the second season of the successful ZDFneo series "Ich dich auch!" started with him in one of the main roles. From 1.09.2023 Daniel Zillmann will play the drug lord Rainer Lanski in the second season of the SKY Original "Drift - Partners in Crime".

In 2023, the actor was shooting for the Saarländischer Rundfunk (SR) "Tatort" "Jackpot", the Amazon Prime series "Viktor bringt's" and "Schwarze Schafe", among others.

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In 2024, Daniel Zillmann filmed the third season of "Ich dich auch!" for ZDFneo and the new season of the children's series "Löwenzahn". He also published his podcast "MY FABULOUS LIFE". On September 30, the multi-talent will host the First Steps Award in Berlin and on October 8, the new season of “Ich dich auch!” will start on ZDFneo.