Sibel Kekilli is an award-winning German actress with Turkish heritage.

One day while at a Cologne shopping mall, she was noticed by a casting director who called her up for an audition for a role in a movie. Sibel won the leading role for Fatih Akın`s planned movie against a field of 350 other hopefuls.

This movie Gegen die Wand (Head-On) written and directed by Fatih Akın was a major public success and received several prizes at film festivals:

* The "Golden Bear" prize for the best movie at the "54. Berlinale" (Berlin International Film Festival) on February 14.

* The golden prize in the category for the best actress at the "Deutscher Filmpreis" ("German Film Prize") on June 18.
* The "Quadriga" prize on October 3 in Berlin, Germany.
* The "Silver Mirror Award" for the best "movie from the south" at the Film Festival on October 16 in Oslo, Norway.
* The audience prize at the "9th Festival de Cine" on November 6-13 in Sevilla, Spain.
* The "Golden Bambi" for the best shooting star at the "56. Bambi-Verleihung" on November 19 in Hamburg, Germany.
* The golden "Gilde" prize for the best German movie 2003/2004 at the "Leipzig Film Fair".
* The award for the best "European movie 2004" at the "European Film Prize" on December 11 in Barcelona, Spain.

She starred in the Turkish coup d`etat movie Eve Dönüş, playing the wife of a man who was unjustly imprisoned and tortured. Although her performance was criticized, especially her distinctive accent (some suggested over-dubbing her voice), she still managed to receive the award of Best Actress at 2005 Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival.

Sibel Kekilli will play a young Jewish woman on the way to the Auschwitz concentration camp in the upcoming German movie Der letzte Zug (The last train).

Shortly after the release of "Head on", the German tabloid newspaper Bild-Zeitung revealed, in sensationalist tone, that she had previously acted in pornographic films using the stage name "Dilara".[1] This report led to a public scandal and the Bild-Zeitung was reprimanded by the German press council, the self-control institution of German publishers.