Sylvia Hoeks is born on June 1, 1983 in Maarheeze (South of Holland). At age 14 she gets scouted by Elite models, and she starts travelling as a model all around Europe for a couple of years. She finishes high school and attends the Maastricht Theatre Academy.
Right after graduation she makes her national breakthrough with the Jos Stelling film Duska (2007), for which she wins a Golden Calf (the Dutch equivalent of the Oscars) at the annual Dutch Filmfestival. Sylvia quickly becomes a wanted actress for both stage and screen directors and stars in prestigious Dutch TV series like Overspel(VARA), Bloedverwanten (AVRO) and several theatre plays.
Within two years after graduation Sylvia gets the opportunity to play her first leading role as Julia in the feature film The Storm (Ben Sombogaart, 2009), which becomes a major box office hit. The film is a national success and reaches the Stony Brook Film Festival (NY, USA) and Festroia International Film Festival (Setubal, Portugal), where she receives the award for ‘best actress’.
In 2010 Sylvia stars as Tirza in the feature film Tirza by director Rudolf van den Berg, which wins the ‘Best Film’ award at Festroia International Film Festival in Portugal. In 2011 Sylvia is presented at the Berlinale as Shooting Star, the unique Pan European initiative which puts a spotlight on Europe’s best actors.
In 2011 Sylvia plays the main character Johanna in feature film De Bende van Oss ,and she also features for the first time in a German production called Fatertage (release 2012).
Five years after her national breakthrough she starts working together again with director Jos Stelling on his new feature film The Girl and Death, in a Russian-German co production (release 2012).
