100 best biography series

List of the best TV series in the biography genre, selected by visitors to our site: Spartacus, Spartacus, The Act, Magnificent Century, The Crown, Empress Ki, Da Vinci's Demons, The Great Train Robbery, The Great, White House Farm, The Durrells, Houdini, Klondike, Medici: Masters of Florence, The Last Dance, Trotsky, Listyev. Novyy vzglyad, Ekaterina, Hatfields & McCoys, The Emperor's Cook
Markimdb: 8.5
Genreaction, melodrama, drama, adventure, biography, history
CountryUSA
Duration00:52
CharactersGladiators
PlaceRoman Empire
StylePopular, Worth watching, For men

Spartacus is an American television series inspired by the historical figure of Spartacus, a Thracian gladiator who from 73 to 71 BCE led a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic departing from Capua.

Markimdb: 8.5
Genreaction, melodrama, drama, adventure, biography, history
CountryUSA
Duration05:35
CharactersGladiators

Spartacus is an American television series inspired by the historical figure of Spartacus, a Thracian gladiator who from 73 to 71 BCE led a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic departing from Capua.

Markimdb: 8
Genredrama, crime, biography
CountryUSA
Duration00:53
CharactersTeenagers, Psychologists, Mother and daughter, Parents, Neighbors
PlotLove, Deception, Growing up
PlaceCourt, USA
StyleShort, For girls, Based on real events, Makes me think

A seasonal anthology series that tells startling, stranger-than-fiction true crime stories with the first season following Gypsy Blanchard, a girl trying to escape the toxic relationship she has with her overprotective mother.

Markimdb: 6.7
Genremelodrama, drama, military, biography, history
CountryTurkey
Duration01:40
CharactersRich
PlotLove, Relationship, Intrigue
PlaceTurkey
TimeMiddle Ages
StyleWorth watching, Atmospheric

Muhteşem Yüzyıl is a prime time historical Turkish television series. It was originally broadcast on Show TV and then transferred to Star TV. It is based on the life of Suleiman the Magnificent, the longest reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, and his wife Hürrem Sultan, a slave girl who became a Sultan.

Markimdb: 8.6
Genredrama, biography, history
CountryUnited Kingdom
Duration02:35
CharactersKings, Strong women
PlotPolitics, Power
PlaceEngland
StyleWorth watching, Atmospheric, Based on real events

The gripping, decades-spanning inside story of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Prime Ministers who shaped Britain's post-war destiny. The Crown tells the inside story of two of the most famous addresses in the world – Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street – and the intrigues, love lives and machinations behind the great events that shaped the second half of the 20th century. Two houses, two courts, one Crown.

Markimdb: 8.5
Genremelodrama, drama, biography, history
CountrySouth Korea
CharactersRich, Orphans, Emperors, Historical doramas
PlotLove, Love triangle
StyleDorama

The story of the woman that would become Empress Ki, and her struggles as she worked her way through war, political conspiracies, and the imperial palace to become Empress of China. This Korean Drama re-imagines the historical figure as a fierce, independent woman who goes to extreme lengths to protect those she loves.

Markimdb: 8
Genrefantasy, melodrama, drama, adventure, detective, biography, history
CountryUSA
Duration00:59
CharactersHeroes, Artists, Architects
PlotMagic, Death, Adventures
TimeMiddle Ages, Future
StyleSpectacular, Fascinating

The series follows the "untold" story of Leonardo Da Vinci: the genius during his early years in Renaissance Florence. As a 25-year old artist, inventor, swordsman, lover, dreamer and idealist, he struggles to live within the confines of his own reality and time as he begins to not only see the future, but invent it.

Markimdb: 7.4
Genredrama, crime, biography
CountryUnited Kingdom
Duration03:00
CharactersFriends, Partners
PlotRobbery
PlaceTrains, England
StyleShort, Action, Fascinating, Based on real events

8 August 1963: Britain wakes up to news of the biggest robbery in the country’s history. A train has been hijacked and robbed, 35 miles from its arrival in central London. The country is stunned. Who could be behind it? How did they pull off such an audacious raid?

Markimdb: 8.1
Genrecomedy, biography, history
CountryUnited Kingdom, USA
CharactersKings, Strong women
PlotIntrigue
PlaceRussia
StyleWomen in the lead roles, Based on real events

A genre-bending, anti-historical ride through 18th century Russia following the rise of Catherine the Nothing to Catherine the Great and her explosive relationship with husband Peter, the emperor of Russia.

Markimdb: 7.4
Genrethriller, drama, crime, detective, biography
CountryUnited Kingdom
CharactersFriends, Detectives
PlotInvestigation
PlaceEngland
StyleBy books, Fascinating, Based on real events

Factual drama based on the notorious White House Farm murders, and the ensuing police investigation and court case.

Markimdb: 8.2
Genrecomedy, melodrama, drama, biography
CountryUnited Kingdom
Duration01:05
CharactersSingle mothers, Gardeners

In 1935, financially strapped widow Louisa Durrell, whose life has fallen apart, decides to move from England, with her four children (three sons, one daughter), to the island of Corfu, Greece. Once there, the family moves into a dilapidated old house that has no electricity and that is crumbling apart. But life on Corfu is cheap, it's an earthly paradise, and the Durrells proceed to forge their new existence, with all its challenges, adventures, and forming relationships.

Markimdb: 7.4
Genredrama, biography
CountryUSA, Canada
Duration02:32
CharactersSpy, Magicians, Wizards, Artists
PlacePrison
StyleShort, Spectacular, Atmospheric, By books, Fascinating

The two-night scripted miniseries “Houdini” follows the epic tales of Harry Houdini as he emerges as America’s first bonafide world-renowned superstar.

Markimdb: 7.4
Genredrama, adventure, western, biography
CountryCanada, USA
Duration04:34
CharactersFriends, Businessmen, Gold miners
PlotSurvival, Adventures, Intrigue
Time19th century
StyleSpectacular, Atmospheric, Action, By books

The lives of two childhood best friends, Bill and Epstein, in the late 1890s as they flock to the gold rush capital in the untamed Yukon Territory. This man-versus-nature tale places our heroes in a land full of undiscovered wealth, but ravaged by harsh conditions, unpredictable weather and desperate, dangerous characters including greedy businessmen, seductive courtesans and native tribes witnessing the destruction of their people and land by opportunistic entrepreneurs.

Markimdb: 7.9
Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, detective, biography, history
CountryItaly, United Kingdom, France
Duration01:46
CharactersLovers
PlotPolitical, Viruses, Jealousy, Politics, Viruses
PlaceItaly, Venice
StyleExciting, Spectacular, Atmospheric, Tense, Atmospheric

The story of the Medici family of Florence, their ascent from simple merchants to power brokers sparking an economic and cultural revolution. Along the way, they also accrue a long list of powerful enemies.

Markimdb: 9.1
Genredocumentary, biography, sport
CountryUSA
CharactersCelebrities
PlotSports, Basketball
PlaceUSA
StyleShort, Based on real events

A 10-part documentary chronicling the untold story of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls dynasty with rare, never-before-seen footage and sound from the 1997-98 championship season – plus over 100 interviews with famous figures and basketball’s biggest names.

Markimdb: 7.1
Genredrama, biography
CountryRussia
Duration02:26
CharactersHired assassins
PlotDeath
Time19th century
StyleAction, Based on real events, Unexpected ending, Makes me think

The life pages of a man who changed the world but paid back everything he had. Leon Trotsky is being interviewed in Mexico city of the year 1940 by Canadian journalist Frank Jackson. During eight days they have eight interview sessions revealing the true face of Comrade Trotsky.

Markimdb: 5.7
Genrebiography
CountryRussia
CharactersCelebrities
PlotInvestigation
PlaceRussia

Investigation of the causes of death of Vladislav Listyev. 25 years passed, but the perpetrators of the highest-profile contract murder in Russia in the 1990s were not found. Or didn’t you want to? Or found, but silent? Rodion decided to conduct his investigation. He wants to know the name of the customer. Six months of work, dozens of interviews with colleagues, friends and relatives of Listyev, investigators who conducted the case. And everyone answers the main question: who killed Vlad Listyev?

Markimdb: 8.1
Genremelodrama, drama, biography, history
CountryRussia
Duration00:44

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Markimdb: 8
Genredrama, western, biography, history
CountryUSA
Duration04:50
PlaceWild West
StyleShort

It’s the true American story of a legendary family feud—one that spanned decades and nearly launched a war between Kentucky and West Virginia. The Hatfield-McCoy saga begins with Devil Anse Hatfield and Randall McCoy.. Close friends and comrades until near the end of the Civil War, they return to their neighboring homes—Hatfield in West Virginia, McCoy just across the Tug River border in Kentucky—to increasing tensions, misunderstandings and resentments that soon explode into all-out warfare between their families. As hostilities grow, friends, neighbors and outside forces join the fight, bringing the two states to the brink of another civil war.

Markimdb: 7.5
Genredrama, biography, history
CountryJapan
Duration00:54

The drama series depicts the life of Tokuzo Akiyama, head chef of the Imperial Household Ministry’s Imperial Cuisine Division during the Taisho (1912-1926) and early Showa (1926-1989) eras. Based on a true story and book by Hisahide Sugimori, 'The Emperor’s Cook' follows the life of country boy, Akiyama, who arrives in Tokyo in pursuit of the culinary arts. Driven by a deep love for his wife and family, a great reverence for his teachers, strong reliance on friends and an abiding love for cooking, Akiyama eventually rises to become 'the Emperor’s cook'.

Markimdb: 8
Genrethriller, drama, crime, biography
CountryUSA
Duration02:11
CharactersPartners
PlotRelationship, Prison Escape, Love triangle, Deception
PlacePrison
StyleAtmospheric, Twisted plot, Fascinating, Based on real events

The stranger-than-fiction account of a prison break in upstate New York in the summer of 2015, which spawned a massive manhunt for two convicted murderers who were aided in their escape by a married female prison employee with whom they both became sexually entangled.

Markimdb: 8.5
Genredrama, biography
CountryUSA
Duration01:31
CharactersStrong women, Actors
PlotRelationship, Jealousy
StyleMakes me think

Anthology series of famous feuds with the first season based on the legendary rivalry between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford which began early on their careers, climaxed on the set of "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" and evolved into an Oscar vendetta.

Markimdb: 7.5
Genredrama, biography
CountryRussia
Duration00:44

Biopic covering a large portion of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky's life, from the Petrashevsky Circle to the writing of The Brothers Karamazov.

Markimdb: 7.5
Genredocumentary, biography
CountryUSA
Duration01:19
PlaceRussia

A revealing series of interviews between renowned filmmaker Oliver Stone and Vladimir Putin in which the Russian President speaks candidly on the US Election, Trump, Syria, Snowden and more.

Markimdb: 7.9
Genredrama, biography, history
CountryFrance
Duration02:12
CharactersSpy
PlotAdventures, Politics
PlaceAirplanes
StyleFascinating, Based on real events

In the 1960s, Israeli clerk-turned-secret agent Eli Cohen goes deep undercover inside Syria on a perilous, years-long mission to spy for Mossad.

Markimdb: 7.9
Genrecomedy, melodrama, drama, biography, history
CountryUnited Kingdom
Duration02:54
StyleRomantic

Casanova is a 2005 British television comedy drama serial, written by television scriptwriter Russell T Davies and directed by Sheree Folkson. Produced by Red Production Company for BBC Wales in association with Granada Television, the 3-episode series was first screened on digital television station BBC Three from 13 March, with a repeat on mainstream analogue network BBC One commencing 4 April.

Markimdb: 8.1
Genrethriller, drama, crime, biography
CountryUSA
Duration02:01
CharactersSerial killers, Maniacs, FBI, Terrorists
PlotFBI
StyleAction

Follow Jim Fitzgerald, the FBI agent who tracked down Ted Kaczynksi, aka the “Unabomber,” and brought him to justice through his expertise in profiling and linguistics.

Markimdb: 7.9
Genremelodrama, drama, military, biography, history
CountryFrance, Canada
Duration00:49
CharactersKings
PlotIntrigue
StyleFascinating, Based on real events

The story of a young Louis XIV on his journey to become the most powerful monarch in Europe, from his battles with the fronde through his development into the Sun King. Historical and fictional characters guide us in a world of betrayal and political maneuvering, revealing Versailles in all its glory and brutality.

Markimdb: 8.3
Genredrama, biography, history
CountryUSA
Duration01:56
CharactersGeniuses, Scientists, Artists
StyleFascinating, Based on real events

Anthology series about famous geniuses with the first season charting how Albert Einstein unlocked the mysteries of the atom and the universe, and the second exploring the passionate nature and relentless creative drive of Pablo Picasso.

Markimdb: 7.9
Genredrama, biography
CountryUSA
Duration00:51
CharactersJournalists
PlotPolitics
StyleBy books, Fascinating, Based on real events, Touching

The rise and fall of Fox News founder Roger Ailes, focusing primarily on the past decade in which Ailes arguably became the Republican Party’s de facto leader, while flashing back to defining events in his life.





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