Sylvia Hoeks was born in Maarheeze, a southern town of the Netherlands. At age 14 she was scouted by Elite Models and traveled to many European countries to model. After doing this she finished high school and attended the Maastricht Theatre Academy.
After graduation, she made her national breakthrough with the Jos Stelling film Duska (2007), for which she won a Golden Calf (the Dutch equivalent of the Oscars) at the annual Dutch Film Festival. Sylvia quickly became in-demand for both stage and screen directors and stars in prestigious Dutch TV series like Overspel (VARA), Bloedverwanten (AVRO) and several theatre plays.
Within two years after graduating, Sylvia had the opportunity to play her first leading role as Julia in the feature film The Storm (Ben Sombogaart, 2009), which became a major box office hit. The film was a national success and reached the Stony Brook Film Festival (NY, USA) and Festroia International Film Festival (Setubal, Portugal), where she received the award for 'best actress'.
In 2010, Sylvia starred as Tirza in the feature film Tirza by director Rudolf van den Berg, which won the 'Best Film' award at Festroia International Film Festival in Portugal. In 2011, Sylvia was presented at the Berlinale as Shooting Star, the unique Pan European initiative which puts a spotlight on Europe's best actors.
In 2011, Sylvia played the main character, Johanna, in feature film De Bende van Oss. Five years after her national breakthrough, she started working together again with director Jos Stelling on his new feature film The Girl and Death, in a Russian-German co production (release 2012).
In 2013 Sylvia plays her first international role in "The Best Offer", directed by Giuseppe Tornatore and starring next to Geoffrey Rush. The film was a box office hit in several European countries as Italy and Spain and is nominated for Best Film at the European Film Awards 2013. Release in the Netherlands and the US in 2014.
