Helena Zengel is a German actress. She is best known for her roles in the films System Crasher (2019) and News of the World (2020). After System Crasher won a number of international awards, Zengel was cast by Universal Pictures to play a leading role in the American Western film News of the World directed by the British film director Paul Greengrass, which was her first international film. In this adaptation of the 2016 novel of the same name by Canadian-American writer Paulette Jiles, which starred Tom Hanks as Captain Jefferson Kidd, Zengel stars as a 10-year-old German orphan named Johanna Leonberger who was raised by the Kiowa; most of her performance is in the Kiowa language. For her performance, Zengel received nominations for a Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Zengel also dubbed herself in the Italian, German, French and Spanish versions; the dubbing is limited to the lines she spoke in English.

Filmography

• 2026Bloody Tennis — Heidi
• 2025The Legend of Ochi — Yuri
• 2025Transamazonia — Rebecca Byrne
• INTIMATE. — Nyla
• Sebastian Fitzek's Therapy — Josy Larenz
• 2021A Christmas Number One — Nina Cutter
• 2020Baby Bitchka — spielendes Mädchen
• 2020News of the World — Johanna Leonberger
• 2019System Crasher — Benni
• 2017Dark Blue Girl — Luca
• 2017Der gute Bulle — Fabienne
• 2017Sommermärchen — Lilly Weyer
• 2016Looping — Lilly
• Never Too Late for Justice — Anja Rothmann (jung), Lilly Weyer
• 2016Route B96 — Karlotta
• Inga Lindström — Milla
• Exploding Ducks

Appearances as themselves (3)

• Wer weiß denn sowas? — Self
• Riverboat — Self
• NDR Talk Show — Self