At 4, she started to attend a ballet school which eventually led her to the Music School in Frankfurt. She ended her ballet career in 1987, since she grew too tall, being 1.77m at the time. In 1992 she finished her Abitur / university-entrance diploma and started working as a professional model until 1994.
Her brother died when she was 6 years old. Her father, a book publisher, hanged himself when she was 11. Her mother lost 5 children during pregnancies and in the end she was her mother's only surviving child; this is why she became independent at an early age.
Other shows she hosted with Mazza were "Desert Forges - Stars an ihren Grenzen" and "Clip Mix". She is very active in the Pro-Sieben campaign Red Nose Day.
In her shows Kraus likes to play self-ironically with her image as a blonde silly but being straight-A in her Abitur and eloquent appearance in talk shows and interviews proves this image wrong.
In some of her shows, Sonya sometimes likes to present barefoot, while at other times she wears shoes. On some occasions, some of the crewmen have attempted in various ways to take off her shoes, but Sonya refuses.