Saga Becker (born 1988) is a Swedish actress. Becker is known for her performance as Sebastian in '' Something Must Break'' (2014) for which she was nominated for a Rising Star Award at the

Stockholm Film Festival The Stockholm International Film Festival ( sv, Stockholms filmfestival, italic=no) is an annual film festival held in Stockholm, Sweden. It was launched in 1990 and has been held every year since then during the second half of November. The ...

in 2014 and won a

Guldbagge Award The Guldbagge Awards ( sv, Guldbaggen, en, Gold scarab) is an official and annual Swedish film awards ceremony honoring achievements in the Swedish film industry. Winners are awarded a statuette depicting a rose chafer, better known by the nam ...

for Best Female Lead Role in 2015.

Early life

Becker grew up in

Eringsboda Eringsboda () is a locality situated in Ronneby Municipality, Blekinge County Blekinge County ( sv, Blekinge län) is a county or ''län'' in the south of Sweden. It borders the Counties of Skåne, Kronoberg, Kalmar and the Baltic Sea. The ...

, Sweden, in a wooded area outside

Ronneby Ronneby is a locality and the seat of Ronneby Municipality in Blekinge County, Sweden with 12,029 inhabitants in 2010. Ronneby is regarded as the heart of "the Garden of Sweden", and in 2005 the park "Brunnsparken" in Ronneby was voted Sweden' ...

. Today she resides in Stockholm. Becker is the eldest child of her parents and has two younger brothers. When discussing her experience growing up

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through ...

, she said she knew she was different and tried to create a dream world where she saw herself as a girl falling in love with a man. In school, she was bullied and received death threats and as a result of the harassment began to drink alcohol, and both starve and cut herself.

Career

She made her film debut in director

Ester Martin Bergsmark Ester Martin Bergsmark (born 1982) is a Swedish movie director and screenwriter of the documentaries ''Maggie in Wonderland'' and ''She Male Snails''. Bergsmark's first fiction feature ''Something Must Break'' (2014) has been shown in more than ...

's movie ''Something Must Break'' (2014) which was based on the novel ''You Are the Roots That Sleep at My Feet and Keep the Earth in Place'' by . In April 2014, Becker traveled to New York for the premiere showing at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was ...

. For her role as the character Sebastian/Ellie in the film she won a

for Best Female Lead Role in 2015 and thereby became the first

actress both to be nominated and win a Guldbagge Award. Becker was nominated for a Rising Star Award at the

in 2014. In 2015 Becker became the ambassador for the organization Suicide Zero, an organization that works to prevent

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and ...

s. Becker had talked about being suicidal before her gender reassignment operation. Becker will, working with Suicide Zero, focus on transgender and

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

people at risk. Becker has demanded that the Swedish film industry give more roles to transgender actors and actresses. In March 2015, Becker became the first person to get tested for

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immu ...

at the

RFSL The Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Rights ( sv, Riksförbundet för homosexuellas, bisexuellas, transpersoners och queeras rättigheter, RFSL, formerly ) is a Swedish organization working for LGBT rights. Lawy ...

's new testing station Testpoint in Stockholm as it had its opening day. Earlier, in February 2015, she had been a guest on the TV4 talk show ''Malou Efter Tio'' presented by Malou von Sivers. On 3 July, 2015, Becker hosted ''

Sommar i P1 ''Sommar i P1'' (''Summer on P1'') is one of the most popular shows on Swedish radio. It has been broadcast every summer since 29June 1959, originally as ''Sommar'' on P3 and since 1993 on P1. About Each 90-minute-long programme in the series ...

'', broadcast on Sveriges Radio, where she talked about her career and her life as a transgender actress and described her life experience as a transgender person by saying,

Awards

, - , 2014 , rowspan="2" , '' Something Must Break'' ,

Rising Star Award , , - , 2015 ,

, Best Female Lead Role ,

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Becker, Saga 1988 births Living people Swedish film actresses Transgender actresses Actresses from Stockholm Best Actress Guldbagge Award winners Swedish LGBT actors People from Ronneby Municipality