Background

Kekilli was born on June 16, 1980, in Heilbronn, to a family of Turkish origin. Her parents came to Germany from Turkey in 1977, and were described by Kekilli as "fairly liberal."

Education

After completing school with excellent grades at age 16, Sibel Kekilli entered a 30-month-long combined training program to become a certified public administration specialist at the local city administration.

Career

With her debut in Fatih Akin's movie "Head On," she gained major public attention. The film won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival 2004 and her acting performance received several national and international prizes, among them the highly prestigious German film award Lola for Best Actress.

Since then Kekilli played in several national and international productions like "Eve Dönüs" ("Home coming"), awarded Best Actress at the Antalya Film Festival, aside with Josef Bierbichler and Hanna Schygulla in "Winter Journey" ("Winterreise) or the leading role Umay in Feo Aladags "When We Leave" ("Die Fremde") in 2010 which lead to Best Actress Award at the Tribeca Film Festival and once again the Lola award among others.

Apart from other movie roles, as the very successful comedy "What a man" (2011) directed by Matthias Schweighöfer, she has been investigating in the highly regarded German series "Tatort" since 2010.

She has also become widely known as part of the main cast for her role as Shae in the HBO award-winning series "Game of Thrones" (Season 1 until Season 4).

Achievements

• 

  Sibel Kekilli has 16 wins and 4 nominations for various movies and television series throughout her career. She won the best actress for ‘Eve Dönüs’ at the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival. She won the Bambi Award for ‘Gegen die Wand’ in the category of ‘Shooting Star’.
  
  

Works

More photos

• movie

  • Die Männer der Emden

    (When their ship is sunk in the first world war, in the In...)

    2012
  • Berlin I Love You

    (Keira Knightley, Helen Mirren, Jim Sturgess, and Diego Lu...)

    2019
  • Head-On

    (A passionate and erotic love story between two self-destr...)

    2004
  • What A Man

    (When his gorgeous girlfriend dumps him for their much man...)

    2011
  • The Last Train

    (The Last Train is a 2006 German film directed by Joseph V...)

    2006
  • When We Leave

    (Umay is a young woman of Turkish descent, fighting for an...)

    2010
  • Kebab Connection

    (Wannabe director Ibo (Moschitto) promotes the family's Ki...)

    2004
  • Eve Donus

    (Home Coming is a 2006 Greek-Turkish drama film directed b...)

    2006
  • Playground

    (Pihalla is a 2009 Finnish film directed by Toni Laine. Th...)

    2009

• TV series

  • Tatort

    (Croatian detective Ivo Batic has worked with Munich nativ...)

    2010
  • Game of Thrones

    (Nine noble families fight for control over the mythical l...)

    2011

Religion

Kekili was raised as a Muslim, but does not belong to any religion anymore, and although she stated she respects all religions, has criticised the physical mistreatment of women in Islam.

Politics

Kekilli supports the organization Terre des Femmes in its work against violence against women.

In December 2006, at an anti-domestic violence event run by the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet in Berlin, she stated, "I have experienced for myself that both physical and psychological abuse are regarded as normal in a Muslim family. Sadly, violence belongs to the culture of Islam". In response, the Turkish consul general left the room.

In March 2015 at an International Women's Day event at the President of Germany's residence at Schloss Bellevue, Kekilli gave a speech on violence against women in the name of honor. The speech drew wide attention and praise in Germany for its empathic message. In May 2015, Friedrich Naumann Foundation named Kekilli "Author of Freedom" for the speech.

Views

In 2017, she blocked her Instagram from users in Turkey after male users from that country sent a multitude of abusive and threatening messages. Kekilli denounced the senders as "bigoted" and "full of hate."

Quotations: "I'd like to say it is only average people who revel in the mistakes of others."

"Acting for me is like a ping-pong game. That's the secret of acting. When you have a really good actor, I always want to be as good as he is or she is."

"If you move to Canada, after a few years you call yourself Canadian. In Germany, it's difficult to belong."

"It's not my passion to wake up at 6:00 in the morning to do my exercises. Sometimes I really hate it. I'm lazy."

"The pressure in Hollywood is bigger to look good than in Germany. In Germany, we are more forgiving. Having a personal coach in Germany is not nearly as common as in Hollywood. In Hollywood, I think everyone has a personal trainer."

Membership

• 

  Terre des Femmes

Personality

Sibel Kekilli loves dogs.

Physical Characteristics: Sibel’s height is 5 feet and 4 inches and weight is 58 kg. Her body measurement 34-23-36 inches and she wears the bra size of 34C. She has brown eye color and her hair color is black.

Interests

• Music & Bands

  Prince

Connections

Sibel Kekilli is not married.

colleague:

Peter Dinklage

(born June 11, 1969)

He is an American actor and producer.

colleague:

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is a Danish actor, screenwriter, and producer. He is widely known for playing Ser Jaime Lannister in HBO’s hit series ‘Game of Thrones’. He is also known for appearing in a number of movies, such as ‘Nightwatch’, ‘A Thousand Times Good Night’ and ‘Headhunters’, to name a few.

colleague:

Lena Headey

(born 3 October 1973)

She is an English actress.

colleague:

Conleth Hill

(born 24 November 1964)

He is an actor from Northern Ireland.

colleague:

Charles Dance

Charles Dance is an English actor, screenwriter, and film director.

References

• Focus On: 50 Most Popular 21St-century German Actresses: Franka Potente, Nastassja Kinski, Sibel Kekilli