Sabine Timoteo, born Sabine Hagenbüchle in Bern in 1975, grew up in New Mexico, USA, and in Lausanne. From 1991 to 1993, Timoteo studied dance at Schweizerische Ballettberufsschule. She then worked for Heinz Spoerrli at Deutsche Oper in Düsseldorf but left already after two months because she did not want to do classical dance any longer. Instead, Timoteo toured with Carlotta Ikeda"s butoh ensemble "Compaigne Ariadone".

Director Philip Gröning then met her in an actor"s workshop in Munich and cast her for the leading female part in his film "L"amour, l"argent, l"amour" (Love, Money, Love) that was shot in 1996/96 but was not released before 2000. In the meantime, from 1997 to 2000 Timoteo became a professional cook in Bern. When the film was finally released, Timoteo both won the Bronze Leopard in Locarno and the Swiss film prize for her role as the prostitute Marie.

In the following years, Timoteo starred in Maria Speth"s "In den Tag hinein" (The Days Between, 2001) or Dominik Graf"s drama "Die Freunde der Freunde" which won her a Grimme award. She also received rare reviews for her performance in Christian Petzold"s "Gespenster" (Ghosts, 2005). In Matthias Glasner"s controversial film "Der freie Wille" (The Free Will) Timoteo plays a woman who falls in love with a rapist.