Til Schweiger is a German actor, director, producer, and writer, who is probably best known to U.S. audiences as Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz in Quentin Tarantino's World War II fantasia "Inglourious Basterds." Schweiger began his acting career in the early 1990s, via roles in both film ("Manta, Manta") and television ("Lindenstrasse"). Schweiger became a star in Germany in 1997 for writing and playing the lead in the crime comedy "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," and immediately after began working in English-language films such as "Judas Kiss" (with Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman), the U.S. indie "SLC Punk," and "The Replacement Killers," starring Mira Sorvino and Chow Yun-fat. From then on, he mixed German movies with indies like Alan Rudolph's "Investigating Sex" and big, brash blockbusters such as the Sylvester Stallone starrer "Driven," Antoine Fuqua's "King Arthur," and "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life." In 2005, Schweiger moved behind the camera to write, direct and also star in the romcom "Barfuss," and has since had huge success with other films he's overseen, including the 2007 hit "Keinohrhasen," which featured appearances by all four of his children and won multiple awards. Following the acclaim he received for "Basterds," Schweiger returned to the U.S. to play Cagliostro in "The Three Musketeers" and lend his handsome visage to the line-up of glamorous faces in the all-star romcon "New Year's Eve."