In the new Ludwigshafen “Tatort: Sashimi Spezial” actress Lisa Bitter investigates undercover as Inspector Johanna Stern. Before she decided to pursue acting, Lisa Bitter took a completely different path.
At the side of the longest-serving cult investigator Lena Odenthal – embodied by Ulrike Folkerts (64) since 1989 – Lisa Bitter could now finally step out of her shadow. In the new Ludwigshafen “Tatort: Sashimi Special” (March 1st, the first) her role Johanna Stern is in the foreground. Reason enough to think about the key details of her career again.
Lisa Bitter was born in Erlangen in 1984 and grew up in Herzogenaurach, Franconia. Even as a teenager she was drawn in two very different directions: on the one hand, she practiced athletics as a competitive sport, and on the other hand, she discovered her love of the stage in her school’s theater group. After graduating from high school, she initially took an academic path and enrolled in biology in Düsseldorf before switching to cultural studies and journalism in Leipzig.
Lisa Bitter got her start in the theater
Everything turned out differently there: the acting students at the renowned “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” University of Music and Theater impressed Bitter so much that she quickly applied – and was accepted. From 2004 to 2009 she completed her acting diploma. Even during her training, she was on stage at the Neuer Theater Halle in productions such as “The House in Montevideo” and “Wetlands” in 2007/2008.
From 2009 to 2013, Bitter was part of the permanent ensemble of the Stuttgart State Theater. There she took on demanding roles such as Ophelia in “Hamlet” and Kriemhild in “The Nibelungs”. Guest performances at the Schauspielhaus Hamburg (“Der Sturm”, 2013) and at the Schauspielhaus Zurich (“Crime and Punishment”, 2014) followed.
“Tatort” star Lisa Bitter has also been successful on TV since 2009
According to the agency, Bitter celebrated her breakthrough in front of the camera from 2009 to 2010 as the main character Ina Frisch in the SWR series “Laible and Frisch” – she played the rebellious, environmentally conscious daughter of a corporate boss. From 2013/2014 she took on the role that still characterizes her today: As Johanna Stern, a specialist in operational case analysis, she initially investigates the Ludwigshafen “crime scene” alongside Ulrike Folkerts. When Inspector Mario Kopper (65) left the series in 2018, her character grew into the second main investigator.
Bitter is also in demand beyond Sunday crime thrillers: from 2020 to 2021 she shone in the Amazon series “The Bei Sleeper” as professional judge Dr. Julia Kellermann next to Markus Stoll (46) alias Harry G. She started in the cinema in 2012 with the leading role in Sönke Wortmann’s (66) comedy “The Wedding Video” and landed a popular success in 2017 with “This stupid heart” alongside Elyas M’Barek (43). Other films like “Conni & Co.” (2016), “Rate your Date” (2019) and “The Goldfish” (2019) complete her filmography.
