Meret Becker

Meret Becker (German: [ˈmɛʁɛt ˈbɛkɐ] ; born 15 January 1969) is a German actress and singer.

Life and career

Meret Becker was born in Bremen, the daughter of the actors Monika Hansen and Rolf Becker. She was raised in Berlin by her mother with her stepfather Otto Sander along with her brother Ben Becker. She is the granddaughter of comedian Claire Schlichting and the niece of the acrobat and comedian Jonny Buchardt.

In 1996, she married Alexander Hacke, a member of the band Einstürzende Neubauten, who contributed songs to Becker's albums, including Noctambule. They separated in 2000 and divorced two years later. Becker was a guest musician on Einstürzende Neubauten's album Ende Neu, singing Stella Maris in a duet with Blixa Bargeld.

She played the character Ernal Eggstein in the 1997 German film Comedian Harmonists, as well as Katya, a prostitute, in Painted Angels. A year later, in 1998, she gave several performances along with Nina Hagen. The short but sold-out tour was titled "Wir heißen beide Anna" in which both Becker and Hagen sang several songs by Bertold Brecht, set to music by Paul Dessau and Kurt Weill. Becker appeared in Rosa von Praunheim's film The Einstein of Sex (1999).

Meret has since recorded two studio albums, Nachtmahr, which featured Robert Rutman playing his giant sheetmetal instruments on several tracks, and Fragiles. Just like the first album, both of them contain songs, poetry and short stories, played with unusual instruments and avant-garde arrangements. In 1993, she appeared as the female singer in the U2 video for "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)". In 2005, she was a supporting actress in the film Munich, directed by Steven Spielberg.