Sibel Kekilli

June 16, 1980.

Heilbronn, Germany.

More photos of Sibel Kekilli in scenes from "Head-On."

Born in Heilbronn, Germany in 1980 to Turkish parents, Sibel Kekilli was discovered in a shopping center. The 23-year-old, who was then an administrative employee at the Essen City Hall, was practically swept off the street and into her first feature-film role as Sibel in Fatih Akin's Head-On (Gegen die Wand). The film won the Golden Berlin Bear award at the 2004 Berlin Film Festival. Kekilli received the Outstanding Individual Achievement Award for an actress at the German Film Awards.

After Head-On was released in Germany, tabloids disclosed that Kekilli had previously acted in pornographic films, and a huge media storm erupted. When the news came out, she got into enormous trouble. Her parents read about her past in the newspapers and reportedly burned her photos, much like in a scene from Akin's film.

Kekelli has gone to appear in numerous films, in a wide ranging series of roles. In Anno Saul's Kebab Connection, she plays an Italian woman. She also appeareded in Sebastian Steinbichler's Winterreise with Hanna Schygulla and Josef Bierbichler and Joseph Vilsmaier's Der Letze Zug.

She starred in the Turkish film Home Coming, playing the wife of a man who was unjustly imprisoned and tortured, receiving the Best Actress award at 2006 Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival.

Sibel Kekilli played a young Jewish woman on the way to the Auschwitz concentration camp in the The Last Train (Der letzte Zug).