Julian Greis was born in Hattingen in 1983, and first took to the stage in youth theatre productions at the Schauspielhaus Bochum. After this he went to drama school in Stuttgart and guested at both the Landestheater Esslingen and the Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus. In 2006 he received the individual and ensemble awards at the Schauspielschultreffen for his performance in ‘Merlin oder Das wüste Land’. In 2006, Anna Badora brought him to join the ensemble at the Graz Schauspielhaus for three years. During this period he worked with directors including Viktor Bodó, Ingo Berk and Tom Kühnel.

After three years in Graz, Julian Greis transferred to Thalia during the 2009/10 season for his second long-term appointment.

In December 2012, while at Thalia, he was awarded the Boy Gobert Prize for young, emerging Hamburg talent. The panel explained their decision: ‘Julian Greis is an upstanding actor – fair, friendly and very special in his sensibility. There are so many ‘cool’ young men around the age of 30 on German stages, who casually pull absolutely everything out of the hat. He’s not like that. Candidly sensitive and with the necessary shame, he defends his characters and always puts himself at their service.’