Fatih Akin

Born: 1973
Where: Hamburg, Germany

The actor and director is best known for the controversial Head-On, his tale of two suicidal Turkish-German lovers.

Born of Turkish parents, he studied Visual Communications at Hamburg's College of Fine Arts in 1994.

By this time he started collaborating with Wueste Film and, in 1995, he wrote and directed his first short Sensin - You're The One!.

His second film - Weed - was shown at international festivals and his feature Short Sharp Shock won the Bronze Leopard at Locarno.

In 2000 he wrote and directed the popular romantic comedy In July and followed that up with the documentary Wir haben vergessen zurückzukehren about his own family.

Next up was Solino, a romantic comedy following the fortunes of an Italian family running a pizza restaurant in Germany's Ruhr Valley.

In 2004, Head-On courted controversy when it was revealed by German tabloids that lead actress Sibel Kekilli was once a porn star.