German-American actress Lavinia Wilson, born August 3 1980 in Munich, made her debut on the movie screen in Sherry Hormann's thriller "Leise Schatten" ("Silent Shadow"). Since then, Wilson has worked with several well-known directors such as Vivian Naefe ("Todesschatten", TV movie) and Michael Verhoeven ("Zimmer mit Frühstück", TV movie) for TV and movie productions. Wilson caused a stir with her performance in the TV movie "Das erste Mal" ("The First Time"), where she played a teenager who desperately wants to have sex for the first time, and the title role in "Julietta – Es ist nicht wie Du denkst", a drama inspired by Heinrich von Kleists "Marquise von O.". In 2003, Wilson won the actor's award at the Tbilisi film festival and also at the well-known festival in San Sebastián for her performance in Dito Tsintsadze's drama "Schussangst" ("Gun-Shy").

In January 2005, Wilson won the Max Ophuels award as "Best young actress" for her portrayal of a fun-loving young woman who is on the run from her own past in the love drama "Allein" ("Alone"). When she was not working as an actress at that time, Wilson studied philosophy, history, and sociology in Berlin.

After some smaller roles, Wilson appeared in several episodes of the crimes series "Der letzte Zeuge" and in the Swiss production "Freigesprochen" ("Free to Leave"), an adaptation of Ödön von Horvarth's play "Der jüngste Tag". For her performance in the drama, Wilson received the Undine Audience Award for Best Actress in 2008.

She continued to star in ambitious TV productions like "Monogamie für Anfänger" (2008) and "Ein Dorf sieht Mord" (2009), which also featured August Zirner, Corinna Harfouch and Thomas Thieme. She returned to the cinema in a supporting role in Oskar Roehler's "Lulu und Jimi" ("Lulu and Jimi", 2009), and went on to play the lead in Oliver Paulus' comedy "Tandoori Love".

Wilson starred opposite Senta Berger in the acclaimed TV production "Frau Böhm sagt nein" (2009), for which both won Best Female Actor Awards at the Fernsehfestival Baden-Baden.

Following her roles in "Tod einer Schülerin" (2010, TV), "Der letzte schöne Tag" ("The Last Fine Day", 2011, TV) and Hendrik Handloegten's "Sechzehneichen" (2012, TV), Wilson was one of the leads in Oskar Roehler's family drama "Quellen des Lebens" ("Roots of Life", 2012). She next starred in Sönke Wortmann's screen adaptation of Charlotte Roche's novel "Schoßgebete" ("Wrecked", 2014). Her next screen credits include the coming-of-age comedy "Simon sagt auf Wiedersehen zu seiner Vorhaut" ("Time to Say Goodbye", 2015), the satire "Outside the Box" (DE/IT 2015) and the comedy "Männertag" (2016). Opposite her spouse Barnaby Metschurat and also co-directing together with him, she played a scientist in the offbeat comedy "Hey Bunny" (2016).

In the next few years, Wilson appeared mainly in television productions, especially in successful series: In "Deutschland 86" (2018) and "Deutschland 89" (2020), she had a leading role as a German federal intelligence agent; in the mockumentary series "Andere Eltern" (2019-2020), she was part of a group of parents who found a daycare center as a parents' association. Wilson won a Grimme Award for the lead role in the series "Drinnen - Im Internet sind alle gleich" (2020), as a stressed advertising executive during the Corona pandemic.  

The relationship drama "Was wir wollten" (AT 2020), with Wilson and Elyas M'Barek as a couple who fall into a deep crisis during a vacation in Sardinia, received much critical praise. Director Robert Thalheim cast Wilson in a lead role in his streaming series "The Billion Dollar Code" (2021), about a Berlin company's real-life patent lawsuit against Google. She also appeared in Randa Chahoud's and Stefan Bühling's 8-part series "Legal Affairs," which aired  on ARD in December 2021 and in which Wilson played the lead role of Germany's most successful media lawyer who becomes entangled in a thicket of political and private intrigue. 

In spring 2022, Wilson was in front of the camera for the feature film "Der Pfau," a comedy about five stressed-out bankers who have to attend a team-building seminar in the Scottish Highlands. The film was directed by Lutz Heineking Jr., with whom she had already filmed the series "Andere Eltern" and "Drinnen - Im Internet sind alle gleich".