Alfred Biolek

Alfred Biolek (Alfred Franz Maria Biolek) (born 10 July 1934) is a well-known German entertainer and television producer. Biolek holds a PhD in law and is an honorary professor at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne.

Biolek was born in Freistadt (Fryštát) in Czechoslovakia, now Czech Republic, in a Sudetengerman family. After expulsion from Czechoslovakia in 1946, the Biolek family moved to Waiblingen near Stuttgart, where Biolek's father practiced law again. Biolek was raised a Catholic and was an altar boy. He temporarily joined later the German conservative party CDU.

He attended the Gymnasium (high school/grammar school) in Waiblingen and graduated in 1954. He then studied law in Freiburg im Breisgau, Munich und Vienna. In 1958 he took a first state exam of law (third-best exam in Baden-Württemberg) and graduated with honors. Biolek worked as a lawyer in his father's office and passed the second state exam. In 1970 Biolek moved to Munich and worked for a larger office. Living in the city, Biolek underwent a radical change and distanced himself from his conservative mindset. He actively participated in the Munich bohemian lifestyle and was part of the film maker Rainer Werner Fassbinder's circle of friends.

In 1967, Biolek acted as an assessor in the legal department of the German TV channel ZDF and switched soon to editorial tasks. He became anchor man of the TV show Drehscheibe and produced since 1974 the show Am laufenden Band for Bavaria Film GmbH, together with Rudi Carrell. That led to his career breakthrough. In 1975 with the journalist Dieter Thoma they started the talk show Kölner Treff for the channel WDR in Cologne. Since 1978 aired his first own produced and moderated show with the title Bios Bahnhof (Bio's railway station). In 1980s, commercially unsuccessful shows followed: Bei Bio, Show Bühne and the game show Mensch Meier.

While visiting the UK in the early 1970s, Biolek caught notice of the British comedy troupe Monty Python, and excited by their innovative, absurd sketches, he invited them over to Germany in 1971 and 1972 to write and act in two special German episodes of their show Monty Python's Flying Circus. The result, Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus, was produced by Biolek in co-production with Westdeutscher Rundfunk.

With his own company Pro GmbH, Biolek produced from 1991 to 2003 his weekly show Boulevard Bio. Biolek developed the art of sensitive conversation and attracted much attention. From 1994 to 2006, he also cooked together with celebrities in his show alfredissimo.

Additionally, the company owns 25% of the restaurant and discothek "Alter Wartesaal" in Cologne. Pro GmbH also acts as a manager for artists like Dirk Bach and Ralph Morgenstern and produced shows for them (e. g. "Kaffeeklatsch", "Blond am Freitag", "Menschen bei Maischberger", "Lukas").

Besides his media career, Biolek has been teaching since 1990 at the Academy of Media Arts, Cologne as an honorary professor.

He supports the intercultural work of the American Field Service Deutschland e. V., with which he spent a year abroad in the US as one of the first German exchange students in the 1950s.

He is actively engaged in the struggle against AIDS and unwanted pregnancy in Africa. In 2000, he was appointed the first German UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador. Moreover, in October 2005 Biolek founded the charity fund Alfred Biolek Stiftung – Hilfe für Afrika, to give African youngsters the opportunity of a better start in life. He currently sits on the Advisor Board for the German Foundation for World Population.

As a patron of the arts, Biolek is also committed to supporting cabaret. He is one of the patrons of the vaudeville "Bar jeder Vernunft" in Wilmersdorf.

Since October 2006, Biolek has been on tour with his program Mein Theater mit dem Fernsehen (My struggle with the TV), in which he illustrates parts of his TV career.

On 10 December 1991, the director Rosa von Praunheim outed Biolek as a gay man among other celebrities on a TV show. Biolek lives with his partner in Cologne and Berlin.

• 1971/1972 – Synchronizer/Producer of Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus
• 1974 – Producer of the Rudi Carrell-Show Am laufenden Band
• 1978 – First own show Bios Bahnhof
• 1991 – talk show Boulevard Bio
• 1994 – cooking show with celebrities Alfredissimo

• 1983 – Adolf-Grimme-Preis in gold
• 1993 – Goldene Kamera – für Boulevard Bio
• 1994 – Bambi
• 1995 – Goldenes Schlitzohr
• 2000 – Bobby
• 2002 – German Book Prize
• 2002 – Deutscher Weinkulturpreis
• 2003 – Karl-Valentin-Orden
• 2003 – Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz
• 2004 – Golden VDP Award „for his merits for the German wine"