Born in Heilbronn, Germany, on 16 June 1980 to a fairly liberal Turkish family, they nevertheless took the news badly and publicly disowned their daughter. The emotionally shattering revelation didn't harm Sibel's acting career at all. She had never seen herself as an actress. After school, she worked as an administrative assistant for a few years, before a string of jobs including bouncer, cleaner, waitress, nightclub manager and saleswoman.
Her big break came in 2002 when she was spotted by a casting agent in a Cologne shopping mall. It led to her casting as the lead in the movie Gegen die Wand AKA Head-On. The debut role won her a 2004 Lola, the German equivalent of the Oscars. She picked up another Lola six years later for Die Fremde AKA When We Leave. The following year she became a regular as new investigator Sarah Brandt in the long-running German series Tatort. Sibel's international breakthrough came, however, when she was cast in HBO's hit series Game Of Thrones. She played the role of Tyrion Lannister's mistress Shae in 20 episodes of the blockbuster show.
