A chameleonic actress known for her ever-changing hair color as well as her talents, Franka Potente was born in Münster, Germany, on July 22, 1974. Although she spent most of her childhood in Europe, she attended high school in Houston for a year and studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York.The young actress's career took off shortly after she was discovered in a Munich nightclub, thanks to a critically acclaimed performance in the art house thriller Run Lola Run (1998). But starring opposite Matt Damon in a pair of big-budget box office hits -- The Bourne Identity (2002) and The Bourne Supremacy (2004) -- earned her even greater exposure.Since then, Potente has built a varied résumé, alternating between English- and German-speaking characters.
Her body of work includes a recurring role on "The Shield" and a part in Steven Soderbergh's Che Guevara biopic, Guerrilla.