Baran bo Odar is a German film and television director, writer and producer. He was born on April 18, 1978 in Olten, Solothurn, Switzerland.
Odar studied Directing at the University of Television & Film Munich. He has worked on several commercials, music videos and award-winning short films. His feature debut Das letzte Schweigen (2010) premiered at the Piazza Grande in Locarno and gained him a spot as one of Variety's Ten Directors to Watch in 2011. His next film Who Am I – Kein System ist sicher (2014) reached the top of the German cinema charts and was nominated for a German Film Award for Best Fiction Feature Film and Best Screenplay in 2015. Odar directed and co-wrote the film with his partner, Jantje Friese. His first US movie was the action thriller Sleepless starring Jamie Foxx and Michelle Monaghan which was released in 2017.
The TV series Dark, which Odar co-created with Friese, gained popularity worldwide and was Netflix's first German-language original series. Every episode is co-written by Friese and directed by Odar. Odar was honored with a Grimme-Preis, Germany's most prestigious television award, in 2018 for his direction of Dark's first season. In 2019, the second season of Dark was released. The third, and final, season followed in 2020.
Currently he is working with Jantje Friese on their next series projects 1899 and Tyll for Netflix which will be produced by their production company Dark Ways.
