Justus Von Dohnanyi was born in 1960 in Lubeck (Northern Germany) as a son of the conductor Christoph von Dohnanyi; his uncle is the politician Klaus von Dohnanyi. He worked at the city theaters in Frankfurt and Zurich and at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg after studying at the Hochschule fur Musik und darstellende Kunste in Hamburg. His first appearance in the American cinema was in Jakob the Liar (1999). He was seen on the PBS presentation of Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace (2000) as well as in the James Bond adventure The World Is Not Enough (1999). He has made many appearances on German television, mostly in TV movies. In 2001 he was awarded a Deutsche Filmspiel Award in Gold as Best Supporting Actor for his role in Das Experiment (2001).