William Ludwig was born in Wuppertal, Germany, and trained as an actor and singer in Germany and London. Stage work includes Jack the Ripper at the Jermyn Street Theatre and Buffalo Bill in Annie Get Your Gun at the Union Theatre. He created the role of Damon Runyon in Kampf des Jahrhunderts at Berlin’s Tribüne Theatre and performed alongside Sara Kestelman in Coco at Sadler's Wells.
In 2018 he played Colonel Pickering in a major new production of My Fair Lady at the Luisenburg Festival. In 2020 and 2024 he appeared in a new production of Fidelio at the Royal Opera House, performing alongside Lise Davidsen and Jonas Kaufmann under the baton of Antonio Pappano.
Alongside his theatre career, Ludwig has built an extensive reputation as a concert and cabaret performer, appearing at leading European venues including the Gewandhaus and the Munich Philharmonie. He toured Germany with Youkali, a critically acclaimed programme of songs by Kurt Weill. A programme of German and French cabaret was performed at the Grec Festival Barcelona and the Edinburgh Festival. He has also performed in New York with Broadway singer Anne Kerry Ford at Cafe Sabarsky, with Karen Kohler at The Cutting Room and Don't Tell Mama, and with Brett Kahr in London. Further appearances include London’s Crazy Coqs, The Pheasantry and the American Bar, as well as the premiere of The Last Drink at the Ruhrfestival. He has recorded German cabaret songs with the Pasadena Roof Orchestra. In 2019 he performed Weimar cabaret songs at a charity concert for Bono and Chris Martin, and gave a series of concerts at the Barbican Art Gallery as part of the exhibition Into the Night – The Art of Cabaret.
His film work includes Queen and Country (Andrew Faure), Brothers of War (Mike Carter) and The Honourable Rebel (Mike Fraser). In 2017 he appeared in Another Mother’s Son, starring John Hannah. His television credits include The Spy Next Door for Sky, The Christmas Truce for BBC and Escape from Sobibor for PBS. He played a leading role in the BAFTA-winning short film Dancing in the Ashes, portrayed Kaiser Wilhelm in a controversial music video for BBC WW1 Uncut, and appeared as Louis XIV in a prequel for The Strain for Fox. Recent screen work includes FBI International (CBS), Riches (ITV), Masters of the Air produced by Steven Spielberg, and The Famous Five for the BBC.
Ludwig’s writing began as an extension of his performance work, when he devised his concert programmes and wrote original narrations that contextualised the songs for audiences across Europe and in New York. Following the death of his father in 2025, he began work on a memoir exploring his family history. Rooted in his family’s involvement in the Nazi regime, the book examines inherited trauma and moral responsibility, combining the deeply personal with themes that are at once historical and universal.
