Thore Schölermann turns 40: From hobby forester to “The Voice” presenter

Thore Schölermann (40) actually wanted to be a forester. But instead, the TV star, who will celebrate his 40th birthday on September 26, 2024, tried acting training in Mallorca on the advice of his parents – and landed a role in the ARD series “Verbotene Liebe”. After around 1,400 episodes and seven years, he felt like trying something new and discovered presenting for himself. Since 2012, he has hosted “taff” and “The Voice of Germany” and presented a whole range of other shows. However, he has not lost his passion for the forest, nature and working with his hands. And so Schölermann still prefers to spend his limited free time in his home in the Sauerland region.

Nature is his balance to show business

This is a “complete opposite” to his job, he revealed. When he is away a lot, he “really notices how much I miss it and that I need it.” Schölermann grew up in the forest, and as a child was constantly walking among the trees. “I’ve always been a forest gnome, I built huts in the forest,” he told “t-online.” “My family has always been involved in forestry and I earned my first money in the forest. I felled trees from five in the morning to one in the afternoon for 7.50 marks, produced firewood and then sold it.” Spending time in the forest was “always a matter of course” for him.

And the now father of two wants to pass this on to his offspring. So he converted a small forest hut into a holiday home for the family. “When I’m there, I also work in the forest. We heat the hut with wood, I go into the forest, go hunting, we eat the things from the forest. I have a very intense but also realistic relationship with nature. I live with and from nature.”

Moderation is “his thing”

He enjoys working with his hands and it gives him a lot of energy. He sometimes misses the manual work involved in his work in front of the cameras. But a life without TV jobs probably wouldn’t be for him either: “Presenting is what I’ve found for myself, what’s just my thing,” he told “Zauberhaftes Sauerland”. “I love entertaining people, I love being on stage and, above all, I love giving people a stage.” And that’s exactly what he can do on the casting show “The Voice of Germany”, which is now in its 14th round, and the spin-off “The Voice Kids”.

However, he became known for his role as Christian Mann in “Forbidden Love”, which he played from 2006 to 2013. Together with his colleague Jo Weil (47), he played a homosexual couple. In 2011, the two even received the “German Soap Award” for the best couple in a soap opera. While Jo Weil revealed in 2020 that he also loves men in real life, Schölermann fell in love with his colleague Jana Kilka (37) on the set of the series in 2010.

Proposal and wedding in the mountains

It is clear that the “forest gnome” experienced important stages in his relationship with his loved one in nature. In spring 2018, he proposed to her in the mountains during a vacation in Austria: “During a hike in deep snow, I got down on one knee and said that I wanted to be with her forever,” described . In August 2019, a fairytale Alpine wedding took place. The TV stars said “I do” in lederhosen and bridal dirndls on the summit of the Seefelder Joch with a view of the Karwendel Mountains.

Two years later, in December 2021, daughter Ilvi (2) made the couple proud parents, followed by a son in June 2024, who was introduced to the public. However, the 40-year-old missed the second, somewhat premature birth due to work commitments. He did not come home quickly enough from two days of filming. “There were no signs and the due date is still in the future,” he told his Instagram followers. “Then the call came with FaceTime and Jana was beaming with the little one – beautiful.” He was also impressed by how his wife managed it all: While she was already in labor, she still got a lot of things done, such as driving Ilvi to daycare, moving the car and even dropping off voting documents.

He doesn’t hold back with his opinion

By the way, Thore Schölermann doesn’t just speak a lot on the TV stage. He’s also there when it comes to a good cause or clear opinions. Together with Jana, he has already attended numerous charity events, and in 2023 he took over the patronage of the McDonald’s Children’s Aid Foundation. With his “Forbidden Love” buddy Jo Weil, he also ran in the “Run of Colors” marathon in aid of the Cologne AIDS Aid. And in 2022, he volunteered for military service to defend his homeland, his family and democracy, as he announced on Instagram. In an emergency, it is sometimes simply no longer enough to “just fight with words”, but may have to do so “with a weapon”. “That’s why I’m part of the Bundeswehr again, as an active reservist.”

He also spoke out at the beginning of September after comedian Luke Mockridge (35) made anti-disabled remarks and even criticized his own employer: “I am ashamed that my station Sat.1 has given him a platform again. Sat.1, you should think about that again. That’s not OK!” The statements were “the last straw”. After the station actually canceled Mockridge’s new show, Schölermann thanked him and wrote to the comedian: “Hope you’re ashamed… your family will be!”