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Katja Benrath was born on 1 September 1979 in Erbach (Odenwald) and grew up in Stockstadt am Main and Lübeck. After graduating from high school, she completed an apprenticeship as a theatre tailor at the Wuppertaler Bühnen, where she also worked for Pina Bausch, among others. From 2002 to 2006, she studied acting and singing at the Vienna Conservatory. She played small roles in the children's film "Karo und der liebe Gott" (" Karo and God Himself ", AT 2006, as a policewoman) and in two episodes of the children's series "Tom Turbo" (AT 2005/2006).
In 2009 Benrath began working behind the camera and started shooting her own short films. Her directorial debut "Puppenspiel" (2009, co-directed by Florian Hirschmann and Susanne Kellermann) won the prize for Best Short Film at the Canada International Film Festival in Vancouver. Her second short film "Im Himmel kotzt man nicht" (2013, co-directed by Hirschmann and Daniela Sandhofer) was received awards at several international festivals and won the renowned Murnau Short Film Award. In 2014 Benrath began studying directing at the Hamburg Media School, graduating in 2016. During this time she made several short films, which were also screened at various festivals.
Katja Benrath achieved an outstanding success with her graduation film "Watu Wote" ("Watu Wote: All Of Us"2016), about the Muslim passengers of a coach in terror-shaken Kenya, who succeed in giving an unprecedented testimony to humanity. The film has won awards at numerous festivals, including the Brooklyn International Film Festival and the San Sebastián Human Rights Film Festival. In Germany, "Watu Wote" won Best Production Director and the Audience Award at the Festival Sehsüchte Potsdam, among others; at the Filmfest München 2018 it received the Peace Prize of German Film and the Young Talent Award; Benrath also won the Young Talent Award at the German Camera Award. In 2017 she also won a Student Academy Award in Gold in the category 'Narrative' (International Film Schools) and was nominated for the Oscars 2018 in the category Best Short Film.
In the summer of 2018, Benrath began shooting her first feature-length film: The children's film "Rocca verändert die Welt" is about a girl with a rebellious nature and a big heart who defends herself wittily against mobbing classmates. The film was released in German cinemas in March 2019.