Cornelius Obonya

Cornelius Obonya was born on March 29th, 1969 in Veinna, Austria. His parents are Elisabeth Orth-Obonya and Hanns Obonya (died 1978), his grandparents on my mother´s side were Paula Wessely and Attila Hörbiger, on his father´s side Marianne and Alois Obonya.

He visited primary school in Hietzing, Vienna and grammar school in the Schottenstift, Kollegium Kalksburg and the BORG III. After leaving school he joined the Max-Reinhardt-Seminar to study acting, left it after one year and worked with Gerhard Bronner. Bronner was one of the important people in his professional and private life , like Emmy Werner, former managing director of the Volkstheater Wien and Andrea Breth with whom he worked for many years at the Schaubühne Berlin and at the Burgtheater Wien. Cornelius Obonya is married to the director Carolin Pienkos, and father of son Attila.

Vienna, November 2009

Cornelius Obonya was born on March 29th, 1969 in Veinna, Austria. His parents  are Elisabeth Orth-Obonya and Hanns Obonya (died 1978), his grandparents on my mother´s side were Paula Wessely and Attila Hörbiger, on his father´s side Marianne and Alois Obonya. 

At the age of 17, he joined the Max-Reinhardt-Seminar to study acting, left it after one year and worked with Gerhard Bronner. Bronner was one of the important people in his professional and private life , like Emmy Werner, former managing director of the Volkstheater Wien and Andrea Breth with whom he worked for many years at the Schaubühne Berlin and at the Burgtheater Wien.

For his first role at the Volkstheater in Neil Simons „„Brighton Beach Memoirs“, he received the Nachwuchspreis des Karl-Skraup-Preises and one year later, the O.-E.-Hasse-Preis. With Andrea Breth he worked at the Berliner Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz (1992–1999), at the Burgtheater from 2000 on, he played in Edward Bond´s „The Sea“ (Hollarcut), Lessing´s „Emilia Galotti“ (Pirro), Schillers „Don Carlos“ (Domingo), Cechow´s „The Cherrygarden“ (Trofimow), Tennessee Williams’ „Cat on a hot tin roof“ (Gooper) und Lessing´s „Minna von Barnhelm“ (Paul Werner). In Andrea Breths ´direction of Schnitzler´s „Das weite Land“ ´in 2002 as Paul Kreindl he gave his debut at the Salzburg festival. And there he starred as "Monsieur Jourdain" in "Ariadne auf Naxos" by Richard Strauss in 2012.

At the Burgtheater Cornelius Obonya also played in the direction of Peter Zadek, Sven-Eric Bechtolf, Karin Beier, Carolin Pienkos, Anselm Weber, Stefan Bachmann and Falk Richter.

Further more  Cornelius Obonya played at the Theater in der Josefstadt where he starred in 2009/10 the „Lehrer“ in a dramatisation of Horváths „Yuth without a God“ by Christopher Hampton and in the  Ronacher, where he starred as „Max Bialystock“ 2008/09 in the famous Mel-Brooks-Musical „The Producers“. With this production he had performances at the Berliner Admiralspalast. A huge success came in 2010/11 with a solo-performance, „Cordoba – das Rückspiel“ by Florian Scheuba und Rupert Henning (who also directed) at the Rabenhof Theater in Vienna. 
For this he received the  "Salzburger Stier 2010" and a nomination for the  "Spezialpreis des Nestroy-Preises 2010“. He became „Schauspieler des Jahres“ (Actor of the year) of Ö1 of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation. After this, in 2011/12,  he played again at the Burgtheater, "Caligula" by Albert Camus, directed by Jan Lauwers of Belgium´s „Need-Company“ and "Menschenfeind" in the Burgtheater´s long running production of "Der Alpenkönig und der Menschenfeind" by Ferdinand Raimund directed by Michael Schachermaier. For this performance he received the „Raimund-Ring“ (Austrian theatre-award) this year. 

The saison of 2012 und 2013 started his co-orperation with Stadttheater Walfischgasse, where he starrer as " Andrew Wake" in „Revenge/Sleuth" by Anthony Shaffer , at his side was Rupert Henning. The play was directed by Carolin Pienkos. She also directed the premiere of "C(r)sah", written by Rupert Henning, "Leroy Brooks" was his part here. Since the summer-saison of 2013 Cornelius Obonya is „Jedermann“ at the Salzburg festival. 

He also played in countless TV-Productiuons, as there were criminal-series „Tatort" and „Soko Kitzbühel“, and he played in productions like "Polt" und "Die Hebamme“.

The latest performances on screen saw Cornelius Obonya,  as „The Policeman“ in „Spanien“ by Anja Salomonowitz and in „The Trapp-Family - A Life for Music“ by Ben Verbong.

Cornelius Obonya also is a Opera-Director Cornelius Obonya-directing with Carolin Pienkos. They produced the first production of Joh. Strauß´s DIE FLEDERMAUS (The Bat) at Teatro alla Scala in Milan and Mozart´s ZAUBERFLÖTE (The Magic Flute)in the festival Oper im SAteinbruch in St.Margarethen, Austria