Thorsten Merten (born 4 December 1963 in Ruhla) is a German actor.

Thorsten Merten originally intended to become a journalist and first worked as an intern at the newspaper *Das Volk*. After completing military service from 1986 to 1990, he trained as an actor at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin, where he attended the newly created cabaret department and received a diploma in cabaret performance.

This was followed by engagements at various theatres both at home and abroad, including the Théâtre Vidy in Lausanne, the Mecklenburg State Theatre in Schwerin, the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin, the Volksbühne Berlin and the Deutsches Theater Berlin. For his theatre work he was awarded the Konrad Ekhof Prize in 1999.

Among his notable theatre roles are McMurphy in *One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest*, the Ghost in *Hamlet*, as well as roles in *Ivanov*, *Prometheus* and *Sonnenallee*. In 2024 he played the role of operations manager Kukuk in the operetta *Messeschlager Gisela* at the Komische Oper Berlin.