Early life

Makatsch was born in Düsseldorf, Germany, the daughter of former German national ice hockey team goaltender Rainer Makatsch. She spent several months in New Mexico in 1988 in an effort to improve her English, and later studied politics and sociology at the University of Düsseldorf for four semesters, which was followed by an apprenticeship as a dressmaker until 1994.

Career

Her television career started in 1993, when she was hired by music channel VIVA, hosting shows such as Interaktiv and Heikes Hausbesuche; two years later, on August 13, 1995, she became the host of the German chart show Bravo TV, aired by RTL II, a position she kept until summer 1996. In 1997, she started hosting her own weekly, late night show titled Heike Makatsch Show. However, due to bad ratings, it was cancelled after only eight episodes.

Makatsch first appeared in a movie in 1996, when she starred in Detlev Buck's Männerpension (English: "Jailbirds"); she received the Bavarian Film Award as most talented young actor for her performance. Since then, she has appeared in several German and English language productions including the romantic comedy Love Actually. She is perhaps best known for her role as Lisa Addison, Matt's sister in the Capcom video game-based sci-fi/horror film Resident Evil (2002).

Personal life

Makatsch was involved in a seven-year relationship with British actor Daniel Craig.

She has two daughters, born in 2007 and 2009, with Max Martin Schröder from the German indie band Tomte.

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Role	Director	Notes
1996	Männerpension	Maren Krummsieg	Detlev Buck	English: Jailbirds
1997	Obsession	Miriam Auerbach	Peter Sehr (de)
1998	Killer		Bernhard Landen	Short
	Am I Beautiful? (de)	Vera	Doris Dörrie
	Liebe deine Nächste! (de)	Isolde	Detlev Buck	English: Love Your Neighbour
1999	Das Gelbe vom Ei	Floris Blinker	Lars Becker (de)	TV film
	Aimée & Jaguar	Klärchen	Max Färberböck
	Männer und andere Katastrophen (de)	Judith Kern	Ulli Baumann (de)	TV film
	Camino de Santiago	Tea	Robert Young	TV miniseries
	Die Häupter meiner Lieben (de)	Maja	Hans-Günther Bücking (de)
2000	Longitude	Queen Charlotte	Charles Sturridge	TV film
	Gripsholm	Prinzessin	Xavier Koller
	The Announcement	Rumour	Troy Miller
2001	Late Night Shopping	Madeline Zozzocolovich	Saul Metzstein
	A Goddamn Job	Katinka Sirena	Thorsten Wettcke (de)
2002	Die Affäre Semmeling	Silke Semmeling	Dieter Wedel (de)	TV miniseries (6 episodes)
	Resident Evil	Dr. Lisa Addison	Paul W. S. Anderson
	Naked (de)	Emilia	Doris Dörrie
	Nachts im Park (de)	Katharina Lumis	Uwe Janson
2003	Anatomy 2	Viktoria	Stefan Ruzowitzky
	Love Actually	Mia	Richard Curtis
	Das Wunder von Lengede (de)	Renate Reger	Kaspar Heidelbach (de)	TV film
2004	Familie auf Bestellung	Eva	Urs Egger	TV film
2005	Margarete Steiff (de)	Margarete Steiff	Xaver Schwarzenberger	TV film
	A Sound of Thunder	Alicia Wallenbeck	Peter Hyams
	Keine Lieder über Liebe (de)	Ellen	Lars Kraume (de)	English: No Songs About Love
	Tara Road	Bernadette	Gillies MacKinnon
	Almost Heaven	Helen Schuster	Ed Herzog (de)
2006	Schwesterherz (de)	Anna	Ed Herzog (de)
2007	Mrs. Ratcliffe's Revolution	Frau Unger	Bille Eltringham
2008	Schade um das schöne Geld (de)	Mirabel Blinker	Lars Becker (de)	TV film
2009	The Door	Gia Konrads	Anno Saul (de)
	Dr. Hope	Hope Bridges Adams	Martin Enlen (de)	TV film
	Hilde	Hildegard Knef	Kai Wessel (de)
2011	Tom Sawyer (de)	Aunt Polly	Hermine Huntgeburth (de)
2012	Die Heimkehr (de)	Katarina Endriss	Jo Baier	TV film
	Sechzehneichen (de)	Laura	Hendrik Handloegten (de)	TV film
2013	The Book Thief	Liesel's mother	Brian Percival
	Sein letztes Rennen (de)	Birgit Averhoff	Kilian Riedhof (de)
2014	Charleen macht Schluss	Sabine		Post-production
2014	Geography of the Heart	Rachel		Segment "Berlin"; filming

Discography

Albums

• 1997: Obsession
• 2005: Almost Heaven
• 2009: Hilde
• 2009: Die schönsten Kinderlieder

Singles

• 1996: Stand by Your Man
• 1997: This Girl Was Made for Loving
• 1999: 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover

Awards and nominations

In 1995, Makatsch won the Bavarian Film Award for Best New Actress for her role in Männerpension. In 2003, she and the rest of the cast of Love Actually were nominated for the Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast. She was nominated in 2006 for an International Emmy Award for Best Actress for her role in Margarete Steiff - A Story of Courage.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]