Toby Chlosta

In 1984, Toby Chlosta is born in Munich as Anne Chlosta. He gets to live outside the box quite early on, when his parents decide to move the family from the Bavarian mountains to the Dutch coast. There, Toby grows up bilingual and in-between-cultures, which leads to the open mind he has preserved until this day.

Toby spends most of his teenage years roaming the stage. He writes and directs his own plays and performs in them as well, loving to entertain others with his stories. After a brief detour into cultural sciences and the big, wild world, Toby throws himself into studying screenwriting at the Dutch Film Academy in Amsterdam. The medium of film becomes his home, as does the queer community. Toby gets to direct his graduation film about a gay BDSDM-coming-of-age-journey himself. This shows him once and for all how strongly he feels about telling unusual stories about how to find your place in this world.

Toby’s own journey then leads him to study directing at Hamburg Media School. After successfully completing his studies with an action-noir-ballad, Toby stays in Hamburg. The Dutch coastal dweller now lives at the river Elbe, and continues to work both in Germany and The Netherlands on various film and series projects. Toby is an out and proud trans man who plays an active role in voluntary media network Queer Media Society. His main goal remains: Entertaining an audience through original perspectives and unconventional stories filled to the brim with feelings, love and laughter – completely outside of any box.

© photo: Anna Clarks