Damian Hardung

Born on 7 September 1998,^[2] Hardung is from the city of Cologne.^[3] A keen footballer, he was part of the youth academy at SC Fortuna Köln.^[4] At the age of 14, he went to New York on a scholarship for gifted students.^[5]

Hardung made his acting debut at the age of 12 with a couple of short movies such as Der Magische Umhang and Die Könige der Straße. Further screen appearances followed in Transpapa, Unter Frauen, and Die Holzbaronin.^[2] He had his first leading role portraying Thomas in 2013's Clara and the Secret of the Bears.^[6]

Between 2015 and 2017, Hardung played Jonas Neumann in all three seasons of the VOX television series Club der roten Bänder.^[7] This was followed by a lead role in the 2018 film The Most Beautiful Girl in the World, a modern-day German comedy adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac.^[8] He also appeared in the alien-invasion series Spides.^[9]

In March 2019, Hardung starred in the RAI television show The Name of the Rose, as Adso, alongside Rupert Everett and John Turturro.^[10] His next role was in the German Netflix series How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast), which aired in May, as Daniel Riffert.^[11] Hardung reprised the role in the 2022 spin-off series Buba.^[12]

Hardung played Winnie Wolf in the 2023 television series Our Miracle Years.^[13] That year, he was cast in a lead role in the television adaptation of Mona Kasten's bestselling novel Save Me.^[3] Titled Maxton Hall — The World Between Us, the series was broadcast in 2024 on Amazon Prime Video.^[14] It was renewed for a second season in May 2024.^[15]

In November 2025, the season 2 of the series was released and at the same time, the shoot of season 3 was completed.

Hardung is currently studying medicine in Cologne.^[16] His brother Leon also studied medicine and the pair were among those vaccinating the German public during the COVID-19 pandemic.^[17] He has campaigned with Greenpeace against climate change, visiting Antarctica in 2022.^[18]