Hans-Peter Thomas

In 2015 the director Mike Mills discovered Thomas while searching for a German artist character, giving him a part in his movie "20th Century Women," which received an Academy Awards nomination for the "Best Original Screenplay" in 2017. Thomas was invited to play alongside Greta Gerwig as her former teacher turned boyfriend. Mills loved Thomas's performance so much that he expanded the part adding scenes in New York that featured Thomas and Gerwig cavorting and romancing one another in the streets. In post-production, Gerwig's part was changed, leaving little room for the story of Gerwig and her New York love interest. Nevertheless, Thomas' impression on Mills was so strong, that Mills cast him again in two other projects, playing next to stars like Alicia Vikander and others. In 2020 the director Andrea Longacre-White followed Mills' suggestion to cast Thomas for the lead in her short film "The Song Is You". The short and Thomas' performance made a big impression on critics. David Remnick, the editor of the New Yorker Magazine, responded extremely favorably to the film, streaming it in full length on the magazine's video portal. Thomas was born on October 1st, 1968 in Bonn, Germany as the youngest of three children. His father was a chemist, who specialized in industrial textile coloring and his mother was a housewife, raising him and his two older sisters. When he was 2 years old the family moved to Frankenthal, a small town in southwestern Germany, famous for porcelain manufacturing and sugar farming. In the middle of vineyards, he received an education as a classical musician, playing violin and viola. He later played drums in local Jazz, Rock and Punk bands. In his teen years he learned tap and ballroom dancing and took acting classes, performing with local theater ensembles. Thomas appeared in twenty theater plays, ranging from Shakespeare to Samuel Beckett. At 19, he decided to go to art school to become a painter. In 1991 Thomas enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich where he studied painting, philosophy and performance art. In 1999 he moved to Berlin to join the international art scene and became part of the city's vibrant art movement. His paintings were featured in many international exhibitions in galleries and museums. He wrote and produced songs for a pop-music album, in addition to appearing in numerous music performances and became friends with many actors, filmmakers and other performers. In 2009 he moved to Los Angeles and became enamored with California. Thomas says, "I fell in love with the space, physically as well as mentally. There seems to be a giant void that wants to be filled. I love that." In 2013 Thomas married the conceptual artist Kathryn Andrews.