Potente, Franka (1974– )

German actor. She is best known for her leading roles in frenetic thrillers. She gained international exposure for her role as the flame-haired heroine in the film Lola rennt/Run Lola Run (1998) and became widely known for her role opposite Matt Damon in the action film The Bourne Identity (2002) and its sequel The Bourne Supremacy (2004), based on the novels by Robert Ludlum.

She won the 1996 Bavarian Film Prize for Young Talent for her professional film debut, a starring role in the German television film Nach Fünf im Urwald/It's a Jungle Out There (1995). Lola rennt, written especially for Potente by German film director and composer Tom Tykwer (1965– ), followed Potente's character running through German city streets with 20 minutes to save her boyfriend from vengeful mobsters. The film won the Audience Award at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival and Best Foreign Film at the 2000 Independent Spirit Awards. Other films include The Princess and the Warrior (2000; another collaboration with Tyker), Blow (2001), and Thérèse Raquin (2005). Her horror film Anatomie/Anatomy was the highest-grossing German film of 1999.

She was born and grew up in Münster, Germany, and was educated at the Otto Falkenberg Schule in Munich and the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York City.