Zoe Stein was born in 2000 in Barcelona to a German father and a Spanish mother, and holds Catalan, German, and Spanish as native languages alongside fluent English. She began acting as a child in Spain and at 18 moved to Berlin, where she trained in contemporary dance and voice work at the City Academy in London and participated in theatre projects at the Volksbühne. Her international breakthrough came with her lead performance in Lucía Aleñar’s short film Forastera (2020), which premiered at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight and led directly to her starring role in Carlos Vermut’s feature Manticore (2022).

Her performance in Manticore earned her a Goya Award nomination for Best New Actress — one of the highest accolades in Spanish cinema — as well as a Gaudí Award nomination. Prior screen credits include the Spanish series Merlí: Sapere Aude, La Caza: Tramuntana, and the lead role in the series La Chica Invisible. Her most recent work includes the feature Danke für nichts (2025), the German-Spanish feature Forastera (feature-length follow-up, 2025), and the spy thriller Erlkönigin. She is based between Berlin and Barcelona.