Hilmi Sözer, born March 9, 1970, in Ankara, Turkey, came to Germany at the age of six and grew up in Tönisberg in the Lower Rhine region. He already started to perform at children"s and youth theatres at the age of fifteen. He then set up the theatre group "Theater-Expedition" and toured Germany with political plays. After finishing school, Sözer went to Duisburg in 1990 where he became a cast member of KONOMA theatre. Four years later, the autodidact made his movie debut as comedian Tom Gerhardt"s mate in the slapstick comedy "Voll normaaal", directed by Ralf Huettner.

After several striking performances in supporting roles in dramatic films like Theodor Kotulla's ambitious TV crime film "Tod auf der Halde" (1995) and in Rolf Schübel's racism drama "2 1⁄2 Minuten" (1996, TV), Sözer appeared in three movies in 1997: in Uwe Boll's campus comedy "Das erste Semester" ("The First Semester"), in Ralph Huettners highly praised crime film comedy "Die Musterknaben" ("Cologne's Finest"), and in the coarse comedy "Ballermann 6", again alongside Tom Gerhardt.

Although many movie goers associate him with his comic roles in the Tom Gerhardt films, in Peter Thorwart's crook comedy "Bang Boom Bang" ("Bang Boom Bang – A Sure Thing ", 1999), or as Abahachi's lover Hombre in "Der Schuh des Manitu" ("Manitou's Shoe", 2001), Hilmi Sözer again and again proved his acting talent in dramatic roles in films such as Ayse Polat's road movie "Auslandstournee" ("Tour Abroad", 2000), where Sözer played a gay night club singer, or the boxing drama "Elefantenherz" ("Elephant Heart", 2002). Nevertheless, it is Sözer's biggest talent to bring out the comic element in dramatic films as well as the dramatic element in comedies, especially in his movies that are situated in the Turkish milieu, like "Kanack Attack" (2000), "Süperseks" (2004), or "Meine verrückte türkische Hochzeit" (2006).

By contrast, Sözer played straight dramatic roles in 2007 in the controversial "Tatort" episode "Wem Ehre gebührt", directed by Angelina Maccarone, and in 2008 in Christian Petzold's drama "Jerichow": The film about a fatal love triangle sees Sözer alongside Nina Hoss and Benno Fürmann. Besides his numerous movie and TV parts, Sözer is cast member of the crime series "Ki.Ka-Krimi.de" on the children's TV channel KiKa since 2006.

Sözer got to show his comic talent again in the social comedy "Zwei Zivis zum Knutschen" (2008, TV) playing the corrupt director of an old people's home and in a small role as a taxi driver in "Ein Mann, ein Fjord!" (2009, TV), starring alongside Anneke Kim Sarnau and Jürgen Tarrach. In the feature film "Die Superbullen" (2011), another cooperation with Tom Gerhardt and Gernot Roll, he played another of his slapstick roles as one of two doltish policemen, who try to solve the mystery of the missing mascot of the Cologne football club, FC Köln. Sözer then received much critical acclaim for his far more serious performance in "Das Ende einer Maus ist der Anfang einer Katze" (2011, TV), in which he portrayed an uptight tax officer, who becomes entangled in criminal activities. In the same year, he starred as a courageous taxi driver in the adventure film "Visus - Expedition Arche Noah" (TV). On the big screen, too, Sözer's roles take a turn for the more serious: In the family drama "Hördur - Zwischen den Welten", he starred as a father who tries to force his 16-year-old daughter to move back to Turkey with him.

His next film was also about a cultural battle, this time with a humoristic approach though: The integration comedy "Der Hodscha und die Piepenkötter" (2016, TV, Director: Buket Alakuş) tells the story of a mayor and the head of a Muslim community, who quarrel over the construction of a mosque. Also in 2016, he starred in Jan Krüger's much-praised feature film "Die Geschwister" ("Brother and Sister"). In a two-part episode of the crime series "SOKO Köln", he did not portray a Turkish or Mediterranean character for a change, but someone with the very German name Markus Roggisch.

In Yilmaz Arslan's coming-of-age feature film drama "Sandstern", Sözer played the father of a 12-year-old, who was brought up by his grandmother in Turkey but has to move to Germany to live with his estranged parents.

In 2020, two films with Hilmi Sözer came to the cinemas: the children's fantasy adventure "Die Wolf-Gäng" ("The Magic Kids - Three Unlikely Heroes")  showed him as a constable in a small town inhabited by mythical creatures; in the comedy "Es ist zu deinem Besten" (2020) he was one of three fathers who want to get rid of their daughters' grooms.