Shermin Langhoff, Theatre Administrator and Producer

Shermin Langhoff was born in 1969 in Bursa, in Turkey. She grew up with her grandparents and at the age of nine, came with her mother to Germany who worked at a factory in Nuremberg. After leaving school, Shermin Langhoff worked at a publishing house and dabbled in Nuremberg's cultural scene during these early days. The world of film eventually took her to theater, and to Berlin. She's organized part of the programme at the city's Hebbel-Theater and has helped countless young stage artists make their debut, who like her have a multicultural background. When she was given the chance to apply that concept to an entire theater, she jumped at the chance and had soon turned the "Ballhaus Naunynstraße" into an internationally renowned theater. In 2011, she was rewarded for her efforts with the KAIROS Prize, one of the highest honours in the world of European culture. Her time at the "Ballhaus Naunynstraße" will come to an end of the end of 2011, but she has a new challenge awaiting. From 2014, she'll be heading the "Wiener Festwochen", one of the biggest cultural festivals in Austria. Shermin Langhoff lives together with her husband, director Lukas Langhoff, and their daughter in Berlin.