Trivia

Fluent in English, French, Spanish, and German.

Trained at the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York.

In the course of his career, he formed close friendships with Edelgard Hansen, Michael Terhorst, director Ingo J. Biermann, Gianni Meurer, Sten Jacobs, Thomas Laroppe, Andreas Adam, Hubert Burczek, Alexandre Vallès, Ian Hansen, Gunnar Solka, Jennifer Eberhardt, composer Thorsten Strohbeck, dancer Martin Freudenstein, Gill Sibley, Vanessa Payri, Xavier Théoleyre, Christine Kaufmann, Stéphane Leblanc, Sascia Haj, Barbara Kowa, Allegra Curtis, Marc Bluhm, Laurent Delpit, Léonard Lasry, Ralf Leutheuser and Antony Hickling. Many of these friendships exist to this day.

Started out as a stand-up comedian in Great Britain, Ireland, and Germany, and performed regularly for almost six years. His first show was entitled "Giving Till It Hurts" (2001), his last one was "Freaky Balls" (2008).

Unsuccessfully auditioned for parts in Die Another Day (2002), Berlin Blues (2003), Beyond the Sea (2004), De-Lovely (2004), and Timecrimes (2007). He turned down the role in The Broken (2008) that eventually went to Damian O'Hare, and his scenes in Before You Go (2002) wound up on the cutting-room floor. He also turned down the lead in Amiga de los amores mal entendidos (2006) because he disliked the script.

His younger sister Nadine Christine Schneider is an architect.

Is a great Marisa Mell fan and has a huge collection of her films. In 2013, he published a book dedicated to her life and work entitled "Die Feuerblume: Über Marisa Mell und ihre Filme". He had worked on it for seven years.

He founded his own production company, Vivàsvan Pictures, in 2003.

He had a dog named Chelito (meaning "Little Pal" in Spanish) that he had rescued from a municipal kennel's killing station in 2007. Chelito has appeared in some of his movies and music videos, i. e. in Le cadeau (2013), and passed away in December 2021.

His favorite club is "La Maroquinerie" in Paris.

Grew up in Harsum, Lower Saxony, in the very same street as Diane Kruger, but they never really met.

In March 2004, when André had just turned 26, his long-term partner Markus Henkel committed suicide. André was right in the middle of producing his first film, Deed Poll (2004). He later dedicated the film to his dead friend and claimed in several interviews that Deed Poll (2004) was his most important film.

Nephew of Udo Schneider.

Between 1999 and 2002, he studied Ancient Indian Laguages (Sanskrit, Pakrit, and Hindi) and Indian Art History at the Freie Universität in Berlin.

In "Freaky Balls", he stated that the movie Without You I'm Nothing (1990) had saved his life as a teenager.

He once wrote that watching Kim Stanley's performance in Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964) was a life-altering experience for him and had changed his view on acting forever.

On his album "Letters from the Whorehouse Exile", he covered songs by Eminem, Tori Amos, Perry Blake, Marianne Faithfull, and his friend Tanja Ries.

Pierre Salducci, head of the prestigious French-speaking Dunas Festival in Spain, invited him to be one of 2012's guests of honor to present his movie A Second Chance (2012) there. André was the first German ever to be invited to this festival.

Suffered a nervous breakdown after finishing Men to Kiss (2012) in October 2010. He had been working non-stop for 34 weeks, up to 19 hours each day.

February 2012: Paris, France: Living and working.

Doesn't smoke or drink alcoholic beverages.

Between December 2003 and November 2005, he made four movies directed by Ingo J. Biermann: Coda (2004), Deed Poll (2004), Etüden op. 18 (2005), and Glastage (2007). He also appeared in the Biermann-directed music video "Wig the Dick".

February 2015: On tour in Great Britain and Ireland with his new one-man show, "Slap My Balls and Call me Mildred!" (London, Glasgow, Dublin, Cork).

He had to drop out of Where Horses Go to Die (2016) due to scheduling conflicts.

Cites the late Albert Finney as one of his biggest influences in acting.

At the 2019 Taiwan International Queer Film Festival, three of his films were shown: Boulevard Voltaire (2017), The Ghosts (2018), and Frig (2018).

In March 2005, he was in Madrid to co-star in a slasher movie called "Colgado de la luna" ("Hanging from the Moon") with Ariel Hernández and Greta Champreux. No evidence if the film was ever completed. Same goes for the movie "(Yo tengo un corazón que quiere hundir mi cuerpo en) los mares de ilusión", shot in summer 2005. That movie starred Santiago Nogales.

He appeared in three movies with Sascia Haj: Half Past Ten (2008), Alex und der Löwe (2010), and Men to Kiss (2012).

He appeared in three movies with Alexandre Vallès: On My Mother's Path (2016), Boulevard Voltaire (2017), and The Ghosts (2018).

He appeared in three movies with Thomas Laroppe: One Deep Breath (2014), On My Mother's Path (2016), and Frig (2018).

Many directors directed him in two movies or more: Alexandre Vallès (two movies), Antony Hickling (two movies), Peter Greenaway (four movies), Ingo J. Biermann (four movies plus one music video).

He wrote one of the first books that dealt with the Corona pandemic in Germany. It was released in May 2020.

Has two nieces, Helena (b. 2016) and Thea (b. 2021).

He had lived in Berlin for 22 years before he eventually emigrated to France at the age of 43.

In 2022, when he was asked to name ten of his favorite movies, he chose The Apartment (1960), Last Year at Marienbad (1961), The Birds (1963), Persona (1966), In the Eye of the Hurricane (1971), Surviving Desire (1992), Basic Instinct (1992), Chaotic Ana (2007), Tête de chien (2016) and Possessor (2020). He also admitted to admiring the works of Roman Polanski, Jules Dassin, Agnès Varda, Eloy de la Iglesia and Pedro Almodóvar.

The bullying and death threats that followed him during and after working on Men to Kiss (2012) forced him to leave Berlin and work in France from 2011. At the turn of 2021/22, he finally moved to Strasbourg for good.

He's been blogging since July 2006.

After The Ghosts (2018), he took a seven-year sabbatical. He studied education, worked in a kindergarten and later in youth welfare. He returned to acting with Perfect Strangers (2025). During his long break, he published several books and took part in the documentary Fireflower: The Two Lives of Marisa Mell (2023).