Curriculum

Cornelius Obonya, born in Vienna in 1969, comes from an acting dynasty: his parents are Elisabeth Orth and Hanns Obonya (d. 1978), his maternal grandparents were Paula Wessely and Attila Hörbiger.

At the age of 17 he went to the Max Reinhardt Seminar to study acting, but left after a year and studied with the cabaret artist Gerhard Bronner. Bronner was one of the most important encounters in his career, as were Emmy Werner, the former director of the Volkstheater Vienna, and Andrea Breth, with whom he worked for many years at the Schaubühne Berlin and also at the Burgtheater Vienna. Cornelius Obonya is married to the director Carolin Pienkos and father of their son Attila.

For his first role at the Volkstheater, Eugene in Brighton Beach Memoirs by Neil Simon, Cornelius Obonya was awarded the Karl Skraup Prize for Young Talents in 1989; the following year he received the O.E.Hasse Prize. He already worked with Andrea Breth during his engagement at the Berlin Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz (1992–1999), and at the Burgtheater from 2000 onwards, among others. Edward Bond's The Sea (Hollarcut), Lessing's Emilia Galotti (Pirro), Schiller's Don Carlos (Domingo), Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard (Trofimov), Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Gooper) and Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm (Paul Werner) . Cornelius Obonya played at the Burgtheater, among others. also directed by Peter Zadek, Sven-Eric Bechtolf, Karin Beier, Carolin Pienkos, Anselm Weber, Stefan Bachmann and Falk Richter; He was Caligula in Albert Camus' play of the same name (director: Jan Lauwers), Herr von Rappelkopf in Ferdinand Raimund's The Alpine King and the Misanthrope (director: Michael Schachermaier) and most recently Caius Martius Coriolanus in Shakespeare's Coriolanus (director: Carolin Pienkos). In 2015 Obonya received the Ferdinand Raimund Ring.

In 2008/2009 he played and sang in Mel Brooks' Broadway musical The Producers at the Ronacher in Vienna and at the Admiralspalast in Berlin. In the 2009/10 season he appeared at the Theater in der Josefstadt as the teacher in Youth Without God by Christopher Hampton based on Ödön von Horváth (director: Torsten Fischer). He celebrated great success in 2010/11 with his solo evening Cordoba - The Second Leg by Florian Scheuba and Rubert Hennig at the Rabenhof Theater in Vienna. For this he received the “Salzburger Stier 2010” and a nomination for the “Special Prize of the Nestroy Prize 2010”. In the same year he was named “Actor of the Year” by the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (Ö1). In 2012 and 2013 he began working with the Stadttheater Walfischgasse, where he appeared as Andrew Wyke in Revanche by Anthony Shaffer and as Leroy Brooks in the premiere of C(r)sah, written by Rupert Henning, also directed by Carolin Pienkos.

Cornelius Obonya made his debut at the Salzburg Festival in 2002 as Paul Kreindl in Andrea Breth's production of Schnitzler's The Wide Land. There in 2012 he was Monsieur Jourdain in the opera Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss/Hugo von Hofmannsthal, based on Molière's Citizen as a Nobleman in the adaptation by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Cornelius Obonya was celebrated as Everyman in the Salzburg Festival summers from 2013 to 2016.

Obonya has appeared on the big screen, among others, in Spain (by Anja Salomonowitz), in Peter Patzak's Kottan - rien ne va plus, in Egon Schiele (director: Dieter Berner) and as Konrad in The Trapp Family - a life for music (director: Ben Verbong). He has also appeared in numerous TV productions, including: in the crime series Tatort and CopStories, Night Shift by Lars Becker and in TV films such as Polt or The Midwife. Since 2018 he has appeared in the series Meiberger - In the Head of the Perpetrator and in the Altaussee crime novels on ServusTV. In 2019 he also shot for Costa-Gavras in his film Adults in the Room.

Cornelius Obonya is also known as a commentator on documentaries and as an interpreter of audio books etc. Most recently, he received the German Audio Book Prize 2024 as “Best Interpreter” for his recording of the novel “The Incommensurables” by Raphaela Edelbauer.

Together with his wife, the director Carolin Pienkos, the actor directed the production of “The Magic Flute” at the “Oper im Steinbruch” festival in St. Margarethen. Previously they both worked on Die Fledermaus at La Scala in Milan.

In 2013, the book written by Haide Tenner about the new Everyman, how he became what he is... was published under the title: Cornelius Obonya - Please come forward.

Curriculum short version

Cornelius Obonya was born on March 29, 1969 in Vienna, Austria.
His parents are Elisabeth Orth-Obonya and Hanns Obonya (d. 1978), his maternal grandparents were Paula Wessely and Attila Hörbiger, and his paternal grandparents were Marianne and Alois Obonya.

He completed elementary school in Vienna, Hietzing and high school in Schottenstift, Kalksburg College and BORG III. After reaching his secondary school leaving certificate, he went to the Max Reinhardt Seminar at the age of 17 to study acting, but left after a year and studied with the cabaret artist Gerhard Bronner. Bronner was one of the most important encounters in his job, as were Emmy Werner, the former director of the Volkstheater Vienna, and Andrea Breth, with whom he worked for many years at the Schaubühne Berlin and also at the Burgtheater Vienna. His further path took him as “Everyman” to the Salzburg Festival and to numerous German and Austrian productions in film and television. For example with “Tatort” or with “Adults In The Room” directed by Costa-Gavras at the Venice Film Festival. Cornelius Obonya is also known as a commentator on documentaries and as an interpreter of audio books etc. Cornelius Obonya is also known as a commentator on documentaries and as an interpreter of audio books etc. He has received numerous awards, including the Ferdinand Raimund Ring and the German Audio Book Prize. Cornelius Obonya is married to the director Carolin Pienkos and father of their son Attila.

Aktion against antisemitism in Austria

Since 2020 Cornelius Obonya has been President of "Aktion". He took over this voluntary work as the successor to Ksch. Elisabeth Orth and her predecessor Dr. Erika Weinzierl.

"Thoughts for the day" on ORF-Radio Ö1 / 2020

In 2020, Cornelius Obonya wrote and recorded "Thoughts for the day" on ORF-Radio Austria 1 (Ö1) on the subject of migration.