Sebastian Nübling was born in Lörrach in 1960 and lives in Hausen. He studied Cultural Studies at the University of Hildesheim, where he subsequently taught as a lecturer and, together with other independent artists, founded the group Theater Mahagoni. He caused a sensation on a national level in 2001 with his staging of the hooligan drama I Furiosi at the Staatstheater Stuttgart. In 2002 Nübling was invited to Berlin's Theatertreffen festival for the first time with his production of Henrik Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman in Basel and was also chosen as »young director of the year« by Theater heute magazine. Since then international festivals have regularly presented his works, most recently Three Kingdoms and Orpheus Descending. Nübling has been an in-house director at the Gorki since the 2013/14 season. Here he presented his world premiere staging of Es sagt mir nichts, das sogenannte Draußen (The So-Called Outside Means Nothing to Me) by Sibylle Berg, which was chosen as »play of the year for 2014« by Theater heute. For his staging of Sibylle Berg’s sequel, Und dann kam Mirna, he received the Friedrich-Luft-Preis as the director of the »best production in Berlin or Potsdam« in 2015. After staging Get Deutsch or Die Tryin’ by Necati Öziri and Zucken by Sasha Marianna Salzmann, he worked on Heiner Müller’s Hamletmaschine together with the Exile Ensemble. He continues his work on Heiner Müller with Herzstück. In the 2020/2021 season he stages Sibylle Bergs Und sicher ist mit mir die Welt verschwunden and Kevin Rittbergers Schwarzer Block. With Eine Zusammenfassung von allem, was war, Nübling brought texts by author Rasha Abas to the stage in 2022. In the 22/23 season, he is staging the stage premiere of Sivan Ben Yishai's Bühnenbeschimpfung – (liebe ich es zu sehr oder liebe ich es nicht mehr?) on the stage of the Gorki Theater.
Since the 2019/2020 season he has been a member of the newly founded Artistic Advisory Board, which advises Artistic Director Shermin Langhoff on the artistic direction of the Gorki Theatre.
