Soleen
Yusef

Soleen Yusef is currently attached to lead direct and write on new series SAM - A SAXON for Disney+; recently announced as one of the streamer’s first greenlit European originals. She has worked as a director for several international series productions such as Amazon’s DEUTSCHLAND 89; the third and final instalment in the Emmy Award-winning ‘Deutschland’ series, and SKYLINES for Netflix.

Soleen was born in Duhok/Iraqi Kurdistan. At the age of nine she and her family had to flee to Germany because of the political circumstances. She graduated high school in Berlin and afterwards attended the Academy of Stage Arts, where she was trained as a singer and actress. Meanwhile she also finished her training as a fashion seamster and tried out her expertise in different creative fields. Eventually she ended up working in the film industry for a few years and was a production and director assistant at Mîtosfilm.

In 2008 she then started studying feature film directing at the Baden-Wurttemberg Film Academy. Her film TRATTORIA, which she had made in her third year, premiered at the 62. Berlin International Film Festival in 2012. Because of her outstanding academic achievements, Soleen Yusef was distinguished with the Germany Scholarship in 2012. She also participated as a Baden-Wurttemberg scholarship holder in the UCLA Workshop at the Film Academy in Los Angeles in 2013. Her graduate feature HOUSE WITHOUT ROOF, which she wrote and directed, shot within and around her hometown Duhok, received multiple awards at International Film Festivals and a German First Steps Award.