Anke Engelke

Life

Engelke moved to Cologne in 1971 with her German parents. Early on, she exhibited singing talent, and was discovered in 1978 by Georg Bossert at a performance of her school's choir.

From 1979 to 1986, she was the presenter of the daily children's television show broadcast from the Funkausstellung (a German radio exhibition, held every other year in Berlin), and the weekly children and youth's sports magazine show Pfiff. From 1978 to 1980, she hosted the show Moment mal (Wait a minute) on RTL. SWF3 first brought her on board in 1986 as an editor; later on, she was the presenter there until 1998. She has sung with Fred Kellner und die famosen Soul Sisters since 1989. Since 1993, she has been part of the SWF3-Comedy-Ensemble Gagtory.

From 1994 to 2000, Engelke was married to the keyboardist Andreas Grimm with whom she has a daughter. Currently she is married to musician Claus Fischer with whom she has two sons.

From 1996 to 2000, she was part of Die Wochenshow on Sat.1, a rather famous comedy TV show in Germany at that time, alongside Bastian Pastewka, Ingolf Lück and Marco Rima.

In 2003, Anke Engelke and Olli Dittrich were awarded the Grimme-Preis for the improv show Blind Date 2 - Taxi nach Schweinau.

In December 2003, Engelke provided the voice of the fish Dory in the German dubbing of the computer-animated film Finding Nemo, which is voiced by Ellen DeGeneres in the English original. She also provided the voice of Jane Porter in the German dubbing of the Disney movie Tarzan, who is voiced by Minnie Driver in the original version.

Engelke can also be seen in the successful sketch comedy show Ladykracher on Sat.1. On May 17, 2004, when the very successful Die Harald Schmidt Show left Sat.1, Engelke took over its timeslot with Anke Late Night, which was cancelled due to low ratings a few months later on October 21, 2004.

Engelke is the German voice of Marge Simpson on The Simpsons since her predecessor Elisabeth Volkmann died in the summer of 2006. Elisabeth Volkmann was Marge's German voice for 15 years until her death. Engelke's first episode was "My Fair Laddy", which aired in Germany on January 21, 2007.

In December 2009 she hosted the European Film Awards ceremony, a role she would repeat in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

In May 2011, she hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Düsseldorf alongside Stefan Raab and Judith Rakers.

The following year, Engelke served as the spokesperson for Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 held in Baku, Azerbaijan. Before presenting the votes, she also gave a live statement on the human-rights issues in the hosting country, saying: "Tonight nobody could vote for their own country. But it is good to be able to vote. And it is good to have a choice. Good luck on your journey, Azerbaijan. Europe is watching you." She was the only spokesperson to articulately address human rights during the event. She had also served as one of Germany's national juries for the contest during that year.

In February 2013, her involvement with the Eurovision Song Contest continued as she hosted Unser Song für Malmö, the German national final.