Selam Tadese grew up in Ulm, Germany and has lived in Berlin since 2005. After visiting acting school at the European Theater Institute Berlin. He worked for numerous theater productions, performing characters such as "Jean" in 
Strindberg´s Miss Julie or "Iago" in Shakespeare's “Othello”, for which he received the Audience Award.  In Amanda Wilkins' “The Bridgetower Sonata”, Selam Tadese embodied the untold story of violinist and composer George Bridgetower at the Schauspiel Leipzig.  

His film presence has been filled with a wide range of roles, including “Wetlands” by David Wnendt, "THE WHITE ETHIOPIAN" by Tim Trageser, "GERMAN GENIUS" by Detlev Buck/Cüneyt Kaya, " SOULS" by Hanna Maria Heidrich/Alex Eslam. He has starred in international series productions such as 
"HELGOLAND 513", directed by Robert Schwentke, as well as the HBO-Pilot "MOGADISHU,MINNESOTA", directed by K’naan Warsame, produced by Kathryn Bigelow (“THE HURT LOCKER”, “DETROIT”) and Carolyn Strauss (“GAME OF THRONES”, “CHERNOBYL”). In December 2023, the final cut was made for the Appletv+ series production “ER BERLIN”, in which he starred as a series regular and is set for a 2nd season. Selam Tadese had the honor to work with Robert Schwentke again on "CONTROL", an upcoming thriller starring James McAvoy and Juliane Moore.