Christoph Silber | |
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| Born | April 26, 1971 Berlin, Germany |
| Occupation(s) | Author and filmmaker |
| Spouse | Tracey Graves (m. 2022) |
Christoph Silber (born 26 April 1971, in Berlin) often credited as Chris Silber, is a German-American author, filmmaker and leadership teacher. Rated among "Europe's hottest new screenwriters" by Screen International , Silber works and lives in the United States.
Silber spent most of his childhood and youth in Germany. Raised bilingual, he studied in London and Berlin. His mother Christa Schuenke is a philosopher and award-winning literary translator; his foster father Maik Hamburger was a well-known Shakespeare scholar and dramaturge. [1] Silber's step-grandmother Ursula Kuczynski fought the Nazis in WWII as a Soviet secret agent. [2] His grandfather was a denazification officer for the Allied Forces and confronted former Nazi leaders after the war. Writing runs in Silber's family, with several journalists and published authors in his bloodline.
Silber worked as an actor, translator and journalist prior to his professional writing career. Taking advantage of his bilingual upbringing, he translated film-related books and screenplays for German book publishers, including Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction . The book became a best-seller and led to Silber's first assignment as a playwright. In 1995 the acclaimed Vienna Burgtheater asked him to adapt Puccini's Tosca for a stage production. This led to further theatre work and connections in the film industry. [3]
Silber's screenwriting career began in European television in the mid-1990s. A genre traveller, Silber worked as a head writer of sitcoms as well as crime series. Silber has collaborated on numerous films, including the award-winning Good Bye, Lenin! , North Face , [4] Arranged and My Last Day Without You , for which he also co-wrote several songs performed by Nicole Beharie. He also established himself in the family entertainment market with his feature film scripts for the highly successful Enid Blyton-based Hanni & Nanni franchise. Several of his contributions to German television like Tatort "Schwanensee" have broken ratings records. [5]
Based in Los Angeles since 2012, Silber has been honoured by the Vilcek Foundation as "an immigrant filmmaker...whose creative spirit enlivens and inspires American cinema." [6]
In 2019, Silber sold a WWII series pilot inspired by his grandfather's story to Hollywood-based Blitz Films. In 2023, Sam: A Saxon , a mini-series co-created and head-written by Silber, was released by Disney+ worldwide and by Hulu in the United States. [7]
Since 2016, Silber has also been active as a coach and speaker in the arena of personal development and leadership teaching. Collaborating with his mentor, executive leadership coach Alan Cahn, Chris has mentored young creatives and business leaders in the US, Africa and Europe.
Silbers former wife Joleita, who inspired his film My Last Day Without You , died from cancer in 2013. [8] He reflected on his family's grief journey in his children's book The Cloud In Our House (Die Wolke Unterm Dach), which was released in Germany in 2022. [9] In 2022 Silber, married American actress and writer Tracey Graves. In 2023 they founded their production company SilberLove Productions, with their first co-writing venture The Gifted Family shooting in Germany the same year.
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