Ulrich Matthes was born in West Berlin. His first engagements took him to the Vereinigte Bühnen Krefeld/Mönchengladbach, the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus and the Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel. In 1988 he moved to the Münchner Kammerspiele and in 1992 to the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz.

Since the 2004/05 season, Ulrich Matthes has been a member of the ensemble at the Deutsches Theater Berlin. He has received numerous awards, including the Gertrud Eysoldt Ring for outstanding acting achievements in 2004 and the Theatre Prize of the Stiftung Preußische Seehandlung. In 2005 and 2008, the magazine ‘theater heute’ voted him Actor of the Year, and in 2008 he received the FAUST theatre prize for the role of Vanya in Uncle Vanya (directed by Jürgen Gosch). In 1998, he received the Bavarian Film Award for his acting performance in the film Feuerreiter. In 2015, he was awarded the Grimme Prize for his role in Tatort: Im Schmerz geboren and the Golden Camera for Best National Actor. He also received the German Television Academy Award for his role in Bornholmer Straße. In 2018, the German Academy of Performing Arts awarded the film Fremder Feind as Best Television Film.

In 2022, Ulrich Matthes received the German Federal Cross of Merit. He was President of the German Film Academy from 2019 to 2022.

He is a member of the Akademie der Künste Berlin and the European Film Academy.

He loves tomato salad. And strawberry jam.