Sibel Kekilli had her acting breakthrough in 2004 with Fatih Akin‘s „Gegen die Wand“, which won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale in the same year. For this performance, Sibel Kekilli was awarded the Lola in Gold of the German Film Awards, the Undine Award, the Bambi Television Award and the New Faces Award, among others.

This was followed by many film and television productions.
Sibel Kekilli made her first Turkish feature film, „Eve Dönüş“, in 2006, for which she was later awarded Best Actress at the Golden Orange Film Festival. In the same year, she starred in the Holocaust film „The Last Train“, which was also critically acclaimed and won several major awards.

In 2010, the film drama „Die Fremde“ was released, in which Sibel Kekilli took on the title role. This remarkable film received countless nominations and awards, Sibel herself received the German Film Award for the second time in her career, but also the Bernhard Wicki Award, the German Film Critics‘ Award and a Tribeca Film Festival award for best actress, to name just a few.

It was time to escape any role clichés.
So she played the role of Sarah Brandt from 2010-2017 in Tatort Kiel alongside Axel Milberg.
This was followed in 2011 by her role as Shae in the highly successful HBO series „Game of Thrones“. She was part of the ensemble for four seasons.

Sibel Kekilli took on her first leading role in a comedy in 2011 in the feature film „What a Man“ directed by Matthias Schweighöfer.
In 2017, she received the Federal Cross of Merit for her dedication to the rights of girls and women and the fight against domestic violence and honour crimes.

Her current projects include „Fuchs im Bau“ by director Arman T. Riahi and „Black Night“ by Özcan Alper. The latter will be released on 3 March 2023.