Stephan Kampwirth was born on March 20 1967 in Arnsberg. From 1988 until 1991, he studied acting at the Hamburgische Schauspielstudio. Following several years as a stage actor in Berlin, Vienna and Munich and some TV appearances, he had his first significant role in a theatrical release in Hans-Christian Schmid's "23" (1998).

After supporting roles in Adolf Winkelmann's "Waschen Schneiden Legen" (1999) and Bernd Eichinger's "Der große Bagarozy" ("The Great Bagarozy", 1999), he starred opposite Frank Giering in the comedy "Marmor, Stein und Eisen" (2000). This was followed by memorable turns in "1/2 Miete" ("Half the Rent", 2002) and Christian Petzold's "Wolfsburg" (2003).

On TV, Kampwirth starred in the miniseries "Ein unmöglicher Mann" (2001) and was the male lead in the comedy "Der Mann von nebenan" ("The Man Next Door", 2002) and its sequel "Der Mann von nebenan lebt!" ("The Next-Door Neighbour Is Alive", 2005). In 2007, Kampwirth became a company player at the Hamburger Kammerspiele. The same year, he had major roles in the acclaimed TV productions "Die Todesautomatik" and "Contergan" ("Side Effects").

On the big screen, he played the father of the child protagonist in "Blöde Mütze" ("Silly′s Sweet Summer", 2007), and appeared in the tragicomedy "Up, up, to the sky" (2008) and the sci-fi mystery "Die Tür" ("The Door", 2009). Kampwirth was next seen in Niki Stein's award-winning "Der große Tom" ("The Great Tom", TV, 2008) the Goethe adaptation "Werther" (TV, 2008), and the post-war drama "Ein Dorf schweigt" (2009). Among his other notable TV credits are "Der Mann auf der Brücke" (2009), "Liebe deinen Feind" (2011), "Mittlere Reife" (2012) and "Alles bestens" (2012). In 2013, Kampwirth joined the cast of the satirical TV sitcom "Lerchenberg".

On stage, his performance in "Wir lieben und wissen nichts" at the Hamburger Kammerspiele garnered him the 2013 Rolf Mares Preis. He then starred in the theatrical release "Das kleine Gespenst" ("The Little Ghost", 2013), and had a supporting role in the thriller "Who Am I - Kein System ist sicher" (2014). Maintaining a busy schedule, Kampwirth portrayed a scheming politician in the satire "Die Staatsaffäre" ("Affair of State", TV, 2014); in 2016 he had major roles in the miniseries "Die Stadt und die Macht" and "Phoenixsee" and played a novelist who falls in love with a young physics student in "Agnes". He also had major roles in "Junges Licht" ("Young Light") and "Radio Heimat".

In the award-winning TV two-parter "Gladbeck" (2018), depicting the infamous Gladbeck hostage crisis of 1988, Stephan Kampwirth played Bremen's Senator of the Interior Bernd Meyer. In "Was wir wussten - Risiko Pille" (2019), he played a manager in the pharmaceutical industry facing a moral dilemma. From 2017 to 2019, Kampwirth played an island doctor in the TV series "Praxis mit Meerblick" and portrayed family man Peter Doppler in the internationally acclaimed series "Dark" (2017-2020). In the six-part thriller series "Blackout" (2021), he was a crisis manager for the Ministry of the Interior and played the title role in the Cologne "Tatort" episode "Hubertys Rache".

On the big screen, Kampwirth appeared in the teen romance "Dem Horizont so nah" ("Close to the Horizon", 2019) as the father of the female lead and in the mystery thriller "Berlin Nobody" (US/DE 2024) as a police officer.