Roger Vontobel was born in 1977 in Zurich and studied directing at the University of Music and Theatre in Hamburg. He has directed productions at various prestigious theaters including the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, the Münchner Kammerspiele, the Schauspiel Bochum, Deutsches Theater Berlin, Maxim Gorki Theater, Théâtre de l’Odéon in Paris, Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen, Staatsschauspiel Dresden, and Schauspiel Frankfurt. In 2006, he was voted “Emerging Director of the Year” in the critics’ survey by Theater heute. That same year, he also received the Kurt-Hübner Advancement Award for young directors for his production of Franz Grillparzer’s “Das goldene Vlies” in Essen. He was awarded the prestigious German theater prize “Der Faust” in 2010 for his Dresden production of Schiller’s “Don Carlos” and was invited to the Berliner Theatertreffen in 2011. His opera debut took place in 2016 at the Staatsoper in Hamburg with Rossini’s “Guillaume Tell”. From 2011 to 2016, Roger Vontobel was a resident director at the Schauspielhaus Bochum, and from 2016 to 2021, he held the same position at the Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf. Since the 2021/2022 season, he has been the artistic director of drama at the Bühnen Bern.