Marijam Agischewa (actually Melan Schwarz; born December 22, 1958 in Hangzhou, China) is an Austrian actress. The daughter of a Tatar and an Austrian diplomat was born in China in 1958 and came to the GDR when she was two years old. She spent her youth in East Berlin, where her father Ernst Schwarz accepted a teaching position for Sinology at the Humboldt University in Berlin. At the age of 16, Agischewa was cast in 1975 by a DEFA team led by director Wolfgang Huebner for the lead role in the television film Geschwister. Agischewa later studied at the Ernst Busch drama school in Berlin. In 1980 she was awarded the film prize of the youth magazine New Life for her leading role in Marta, Marta and was voted the most popular actress in the GDR. Agischewa played in 30 GDR films such as Der Leutnant Yorck von Wartenburg (1981) as well as in series such as the Neumann family (1984) and Treffpunkt Flughafen (1986).In 1989, just a few months before the fall of the Wall, she did not return to the GDR from a state-approved stay in the USA to visit her family and went to West Berlin.
Since then, Agischewa has appeared in numerous films and television series such as Wolffs Revier, Die Männer vom K3, Das Traumschiff, Tatort, Verschollen in Thailand, Air Albatros and Matchball. She was also popular in her series roles in Dr. Sommerfeld – News from the Bülowbogen (1998–2002) and Friends for Life (1994–1996 and 1999). From 2008 to 2009 she was in the ZDF telenovela Paths to Happiness. Since 2015 Marijam Agischewa has worked as Prof. Dr. Karin Patzelt in the ARD series In all friendship – To see the young doctors.
She also works as a voice actress and as a freelance naturopath for psychotherapy in Berlin.
