Markus Paßlick

Markus Paßlick, born in Münster in 1963, discovered the world of percussion instruments as a teenager and was soon playing in various jazz and pop bands. After leaving school and completing his civilian service, he studied geography, botany and zoology at Münster University. Until the mid-1990s, Markus Paßlick worked in zoological research and also wrote environmental impact assessments and ecological reports for various construction projects in Germany and Switzerland.

Since 1989, the nature boy has been a member of the Götz Alsmann Band and plays around 100 concerts a year with the ensemble. For the last four CD recordings, the Alsmann Band traveled to Paris, New York, Rome and Berlin. In 1996, the band members were engaged for the film production “Alles wegen Robert de Niro”. The film was shown in prime time on ARD. In 2019, he tricked his boss into being a decoy for the ARD show “Verstehen Sie Spaß?”. As a studio musician, Paßlick can be heard on over 100 albums, including Dr. Ring Ding, Reinhard Mey and the legendary mtv unplugged by “Die Ärzte”. Markus Paßlick has also been a sought-after author for various television formats since 1995. For over seven years, he worked on the “Harald Schmidt Show” in front of and behind the camera. His zoological knowledge was always in demand, as Schmidt often invited him to appear on his show as a talk show guest, accompanied by live animals. He wrote texts and show concepts for Steffen Henssler (over 700 episodes of “Topfgeldjäger”, ZDF), Eckart von Hirschhausen (“Hirschhausens Quiz des Menschen”, ARD, “Hirschhausens Sprechstunde”, WDR), Cordula Stratmann, Ralf Schmitz and wrote two zoologically correct children's books about the life of dinosaurs and sabre-toothed cats for Coppenrath Verlag. Paßlick is still booked for lectures and readings on these topics, including by lit.COLOGNE.

From 2003 to 2016, Markus Paßlick worked as a writer for the WDR show “Zimmer frei”. He regularly appeared in front of the camera in various roles, as band leader of the “Zimmer frei Kurorchester” or as a strict Zimmer frei notary. Paßlick also wrote the broadcasting scripts for “Götz Alsmanns Nachtmusik” on ZDF as well as for two “Echo Klassik” awards ceremonies and the “European Culture Prize 2018” award ceremony in Dresden's Frauenkirche. Since 2017, Paßlick has been touring as a foley artist and narrator for live readings of crime thrillers with Kai Magnus Sting, Henning Venkse, Bastian Pastewka, Jochen Malmsheimer and Jochen Busse, among others. In 2019, the music for the animated film “Manou flieg flink” was awarded the German Film Music Prize, with Paßlick playing the percussions. From 2020, he was part of the permanent team of authors for the “Heute Show” on ZDF for four years. Paßlick is also no stranger to the world of magic: he works with the Ehrlich Brothers on their stage and television shows.