Elke Winkens, née Fischer (born 25 March 1970 in

Linnich Linnich is a town in the Düren (district), district of Düren in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the Rur, River Rur (Roer river), approx. 10 km north-west of Jülich. Economy Linnich is the home of Schweizeris ...

) is an Austrian-German actress. She grew up in Germany in the district

Ratheim Ratheim is the second largest district of Hückelhoven, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most popul ...

Hückelhoven Hückelhoven (; li, Hukkelhaove ) is a town in the district of Heinsberg, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated on the river Rur, approx. 10 km east of Heinsberg, 20 km south-west of Mönchengladbach and approx. 15 km f ...

. Because of her father's work the family moved to

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and

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; for some time she also resided in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. At the age of six she took

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

classes and at the age of nine she started performing on stage. Afterwards she performed in many dance and theater acts. From 1978 to 1986 she was a professional gymnast and won several titles in floor exercise. At the age of eighteen she got a scholarship at the

London Studio Centre The London Studio Centre, in North Finchley, London, is a British dance and theatre school providing courses in classical ballet, contemporary dance, jazz dance, and musical theatre. It is accredited by the CDMT, Council for Dance, Drama and Mus ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, where she was stationed between 1989 and 1991. Then she moved to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and participated in the Musical School at the Theater Vienna where she studied song, dance and acting. Later she joined the

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or d ...

performance group Die Hektiker which made her known. She got her first TV acting job in the series Cell-O-Fun which was broadcast between 1996 and 1997, and then the series called One in 1998. In 2002, she acted in the crime series

Inspector Rex ''Inspector Rex'' (German: ''Kommissar Rex''; Italian: ''Il commissario Rex'') is an Austrian-Italian police procedural comedy-drama television series created by Peter Hajek and Peter Moser. Originally an Austrian series aired from 1994 to 2004 ...

where she played the character Niki Herzog. Life Ball 2009 (opening) Elke Winkens

In 2003, Winkens posed for the German edition of

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...

magazine. And in 2008, she participated in the celebrity dancing show Dancing Stars which was broadcast on

ORF ORF or Orf may refer to: * Norfolk International Airport, IATA airport code ORF * Observer Research Foundation, an Indian research institute * One Race Films, a film production company founded by Vin Diesel * Open reading frame, a portion of the ...

. She was voted off just one week before the final.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Winkens, Elke Living people 1970 births Austrian actresses German actresses German television personalities