Christoph Silber | |
---|---|
Christoph Silber (often referred to as Chris Silber) is a British-German film producer, screenwriter and director based in Los Angeles. Rated among "Europe's hottest new screenwriters" by Screen International, he frequently collaborates on projects in the United States.
Silber studied English and French history and literature in London and Berlin. His mother is a philosopher and award winning literary translator, his foster father is a well-known Shakespeare scholar and dramaturge. Writing runs in Silber's family. Apart from his parents, several relatives and ancestors of his were journalists or published authors.
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 bestseller 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 theater work and connections in the film industry.
Silber's screenwriting career began in the mid 90's with contributions to several European TV shows. 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 Goodbye Lenin, North Face and Arranged. He also established himself on the family entertainment market with his feature film scripts for the highly successful Enid Blyton-based Hanni & Nanni franchise.
For many years, Silber collaborated with his New York writing partner Stefan Schaefer and Berlin associate Thorsten Wettcke on numerous projects respectively. With Schaefer, he wrote and produced the multiple award-winning 2011 film My Last Day Without You starring Nicole Beharie. Teamed with Wettcke, Silber created a new concept for the German crime show Tatort, which was hailed as "a triumph for German quality television" by Der Spiegel in 2008. The duo received an Grimme Award in 2009 and a Romy Award in 2012. In 2013 their film A Day For A Miracle won the International Emmy in the Best TV movie or miniseries category. In 2015, their feature length crime episode "Tatort: Schwanensee" became Germany's most watched TV program of the year, breaking a 25-year-old ratings record with 13.6 million viewers.