There he met Simon's Russian-Jewish mother, Olga, who studied electronics and originally hailed from Kazakhstan.

Maria was born and brought up in the former East Germany, but moved to New York City in 1990 to live with her father, a computer expert with the United Nations, and her sister Dalena Simon.

After finishing school she moved back to the newly reunited Germany to study acting at the Academy of Performing Arts Ernst Busch in Berlin where she received her diploma in 1999.

[3] Simon was nominated as the best supporting actress in the 2003 German Film Awards,[4] and was named European Shooting Star (i.e., best newcomer) at the 2004 Berlinale.

[5] In the same year she played Polly in Bertolt Brechts Dreigroschenoper at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin.