Potente achieved her international breakthrough by starring in the lead role of Tom Tykwer's "Run Lola Run" (1998). To save her boyfriend Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu), Lola had to run through Berlin to collect 100,000 Deutsche Mark in 20 minutes. The award-winning thriller was a box office hit in the US. Potente was selected as Actress of the Year at the German Film Awards - also known as the Lolas.

In the TV series "Taboo" on Amazon Prime, Franka Potente is a brothel manager called Helga von Hinten. With her daughter, she is an ally of the main character, James Keziah Delaney (played by Tom Hardy), a man who has to fiercely fight for his inheritance upon returning to London. Set in 1814, "Taboo" deals with greed, power, revenge and betrayal.

When she was discovered by casting agents for the film "After Five in the Forest Primeval" (1995), Franka Potente was still an acting student. In her debut film by Hans-Christian Schmid, Potente played a rebellious 17-year-old girl from a respectable family. She won best young actress at the Bavarian Film Awards.

After the success of "Run Lola Run," Potente appeared that same year in the episode film "Bin ich schön?" (Am I beautiful?), by German director Doris Dörrie. She depicted a woman who fakes being deaf. Featuring some of Germany's top actors, such as Iris Berben, Heike Makatsch, Senta Berger and Otto Sander, it's a film about love, the fear of commitment and the search for identity.

In 2000, Franka Potente starred in "Anatomy," directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky. In this horror film, she is the ambitious medical student Paula, who is selected for a prestigious class with a renowned professor. She discovers an ancient secretive society of doctors whose members kill students for their research. Potente was once again selected as Actress of the Year at the German Film Awards.

Potente starred for a second time in a Tom Tykwer movie in 2000 - this time for a romance called "The Princess and the Warrior." The psychiatric hospital nurse Sissi (Potente) and the former soldier Bodo (Benno Fürmann) need to save themselves before they manage to find love. This film was also acclaimed by critics.

The success of "Run Lola Run" also sparked Hollywood's interest in the German actress. In 2001, she featured in "Blow," by Ted Demme, starring Johnny Depp as a drug dealer. In the movie, Potente is his first love, an airline stewardess who smuggles marijuana for him. Her character dies from cancer 30 minutes into the film - but that was long enough for her to convince Hollywood of her talent.

The following year, Franka Potente obtained a lead role along with Matt Damon in "The Bourne Identity," by Doug Liman, securing her fame in the US. In the film, she helped her partner, a CIA agent suffering from amnesia, to piece back his identity. Her character, Marie Kreutz, also appeared in the 2004 sequel, but was killed a few minutes into the film.

After hit films like "Blow" and "The Bourne Identity," the next movies Potente featured in weren't quite as successful. Among them was "Creep," a 2004 horror film directed by Christopher Smith. She played a woman who's locked in the London Underground for a night with a hideously deformed killer.

In 2005, she directed her own film, called in German "Der die Tollkirsche ausgräbt" (The one who unearths the deadly nightshade). In this silent movie, a punk lands in the year 1918. Pictured is Potente on set with actor Max Urlach. She also plans on directing a new script she's already written, described as "a modern underdog story."