At five years old, she made her acting debut in a music video for the Berlin Alternative rock group Abby. Her debut feature film, Die Tochter (The Daughter), had its Berlinale premiere in 2017 and she performed the lead role at the age of eight. Additionally, she made two appearances in Die Spezialisten – I’m Namen der Opfer, a German television series.
2019 saw the Berlinale debut of the drama film System Crasher, in which Zengel plays nine-year-old Benni, who is angry and scarred. In April 2020, Helena was awarded the German Film Prize for Best Actress. Zengel was chosen by Universal Pictures to play the lead role in the American Western News of the World.
In addition, Zengel co-stars with Tom Hanks as Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd in this adaptation of Canadian-American novelist Paulette Jiles’ 2016 novel, Kiowa, as a 10-year-old German orphan named Johanna Leonberger.
For her portrayal, Zengel received nominations for both the Screen Actors Guild Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.
In the touching romantic comedy “A Christmas Number One,” which debuted in 2021 and starring Zengel with Freida Pinto and Iwan Rheon, the story revolves around a young lady who tries to stop her uncle from suicide before she passes away from a fatal illness.
