Seyneb Nesha Saleh (born 25 December 1987) is a German

actress An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

. She is best known for her role as Naadirah in the 2018 Netflix film '' Mute''.

Early life and education

Seyneb Nesha Saleh was born on 25 December 1987 in

Aalen Aalen (; Swabian German, Swabian: ''Oole'') is a town located in the eastern part of the German state of Baden-Württemberg, about east of Stuttgart and north of Ulm. It is the seat of the Ostalbkreis district and is its largest town. It is ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

. She is a daughter of a German mother and an Iraqi father. Apart from two years in

Casablanca Casablanca (, ) is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Chaouia (Morocco), Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a populatio ...

, where she attended an American school, she was mainly raised in Germany. Saleh lives in Berlin. She studied acting from 2008 to 2012 at the

Berlin University of the Arts The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK; also known in English as the Berlin University of the Arts), situated in Berlin, Germany, is the second largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research uni ...

and received a scholarship from the German Academic Scholarship Foundation ''

Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes The German Academic Scholarship Foundation (German: , or ''Studienstiftung'' for short) is Germany's largest and most prestigious scholarship foundation. According to its statutes, it supports "the university education of young people who, on ac ...

'' in 2010.

Career

After gaining a leading role in ' by

Rudolf Thome Rudolf Thome (born 14 November 1939) is a German film director and producer. He has directed more than 30 films since 1964. His 1986 film ''Tarot'' was entered into the 15th Moscow International Film Festival. Selected filmography Director * ...

she appeared in ', where she played alongside

Nora Tschirner Nora Marie Tschirner (born 12 June 1981) is a German film actress, musician and former television and radio presenter. Early life Nora Tschirner was born in East Berlin (then East Germany) to the documentary film director and the radio journa ...

and

Elyas M'Barek Elyas M'Barek (; born 29 May 1982) is an Austrian actor based in Germany. He gained recognition for his roles in the comedy television series '' Türkisch für Anfänger'' and the 2013 comedy film '' Fack ju Göhte.'' Early life M'Barek was bo ...

. 2012 she joined the ensemble at the playhouse in

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. Apart from small performances on screen in 2014 in ''For Nothing'' and ', she mainly performed on stage. 2015 she transitioned to the Volkstheater Vienna, where she was a member of the acting ensemble and appeared until 2018. During this period she worked with acclaimed theater directors such as Yael Renan, Dušan David Pařízek and Stephan Kimmig. She also repeatedly worked with the

puppeteer A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object called a puppet to create the illusion that the puppet is alive. The puppet is often shaped like a human, animal, or legendary creature. The puppeteer may be visible to or hidden from the ...

and director Nikolaus Habjan, who has taught her puppeteering. In his shows, she hence performed as an actress as well as a puppeteer. In 2016 Saleh landed her first English-language role in

Duncan Jones Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones (born 30 May 1971) is a British film director, film producer and screenwriter. He directed the films ''Moon'' (2009), ''Source Code'' (2011), '' Warcraft'' (2016), and '' Mute'' (2018). For ''Moon'', he won the BAFT ...

' '' Mute''. In the

neo-noir Neo-noir is a film genre that adapts the visual style and themes of 1940s and 1950s American film noir for contemporary audiences, often with more graphic depictions of violence and sexuality. During the late 1970s and the early 1980s, the term ...

science fiction film Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses Speculative fiction, speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as Extraterrestrial life in fiction, extraterrestria ...

she played the mysterious girlfriend ''Naadirah'' of a mute bartender played by

Alexander Skarsgård Alexander Johan Hjalmar Skarsgård (; born 25 August 1976) is a Swedish actor. A son of actor Stellan Skarsgård, he began acting at age seven but quit at age thirteen. After serving in the Swedish Navy, Skarsgård returned to acting and gained ...

. The

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

production was released in February 2018. 2018 She further appeared in ''

Deutschland 86 ''Deutschland 86'' () is a 2018 German spy thriller television series starring Jonas Nay as an agent of East Germany in 1986, in relation to the Angolan Civil War. It is a sequel to the 2015 series ''Deutschland 83'' and precedes the 2020 seri ...

'' in an Arabic-speaking role and in the German Netflix production '' Dogs of Berlin''. 2022 in the Sky series she takes the role of a German officer in “Munich Games” trying to foil a potential terrorist attack on the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Olympic massacre of Israeli athletes and coaches. Her situation is complicated by her affair with her Arabic-speaking informant.

Filmography

Film

Theater

Television

References

External links

*
German AgencyIndependent Talent
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saleh, Seyneb Living people Actresses from Baden-Württemberg German actresses 1987 births People from Aalen German people of Iraqi descent Berlin University of the Arts alumni