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Maria Schrader, born September 27, 1965, in Hannover, as the daughter of two artists, made her stage debut at the age of 15 at Hannoversches Theater in a production of August Strindberg's play "The Father". In the 1982/83 season, the autodidact became a cast member of Staatstheater Hannover. Then, in 1983, Schrader started professional actor’s training at Vienna’s Max Reinhardt Seminar. At this point of her career, Schrader had already played at theatres in Vienna, Venice (alongside Sammy Molcho), and Rome. After two years of training, she left Vienna and went to Berlin with her partner Dani Levy whom she had met in Vienna. At Berlin’s Schaubühne, Schrader then took singing lessons with Mirka Yemen Dzaris.
Maria Schrader made her movie debut in 1988 in Dani Levy’s debut film "RobbyKallePaul". Schrader also participated in writing the screen play to this film, a comedy about the every day problems in matters of life and love of three Berliners. During the following years, Schrader’s career was closely linked to Dani Levy’s, and the couple made six films (one of them a short film) together. For three of the films, Schrader apart from being the leading actress also became the co-author. Furthermore, she won the 1992 film festival "Max Ophuels Preis" as "Best new actress" for her performance as a dropout in Levy’s "I was on Mars".
After starring in a leading role in the well-received road movie "Burning Life" (1993) about two female bank robbers in the German Democratic Republic, Schrader made her breakthrough in 1994 in the leading role of Doris Dörrie's melancholic comedy "Keiner liebt mich" ("Nobody Loves Me"). Her portrayal of an "ordinary woman" in a depressing and freakish environment won Schrader the 1995 Bavarian as well as the 1995 German film award. In the same year, Schrader and Levy finished the intimately played relationship drama "Stille Nacht" ("Silent Night") that was well-received by critics and movie goers alike.
Schrader's acting style has never seemed artificial. On the contrary, Schrader does not show any mannerisms and does not tout for the sympathy of the audience but she is an actress who endows the characters she plays with rough edges. But that does not mean, on the other hand, that Schrader who is sometimes described by colleagues as a "difficult person" would only be "playing herself". Film magazine epd Film characterized Schrader as an actress who "associates her image as a star with the concept of a being intensely genuine in her film parts. Schrader considers her passion for acting that allows her to experience the identity of her characters far more important than a synthetic image."
Schrader's career reached the next level in 1998/99 when she starred in three successful movies in a row, first, in Dani Levy's highly praised thriller "Meschugge" ("The Giraffe"), then, in the award-winning and successful comedy "Bin ich schön" ("Am I Beautiful?"), and finally in the drama "Aimée und Jaguar" ("Aimée & Jaguar"). Her portrayal of a Jewish lesbian who becomes a member of the resistance in Berlin during the Third Reich in "Aimée und Jaguar" won Schrader several awards: the award as "Best actress" at the 1999 Berlinale as well as the Bavarian film award and (together with "Meschugge") the German film award.
During the following years, Schrader, who is known to be rather picky with her roles, appeared in films as diverse as the satire "Victor Vogel" ("Advertising Rules!"), the divorce drama "Väter" ("I'm the Father"), or the Third Reich drama "Rosenstraße". In 2007, Schrader finally made her debut as a director. Her first film, the drama "Liebesleben" ("Love Life", based on Zeruva Shalev's novel) about the obsessive love affair between a young woman and a much older man premiered at the Rome film festival.
She next starred in the made-for-TV drama "Auf dem Vulkan" and appeared in the "Tatort" episode "Borowski und das Mädchen im Moor". Between 2009 and 2010, Schrader was one of the adult leads in the successful children's film franchise "Vorstadtkrokodile" ("The Crocodiles")."In Darkness" (2011), directed by Agnieszka Holland, featured her in the role of Jewish woman trying to evade the Nazis by hiding in the underground of a Polish city.
After being one of the leads in the family drama "Schwestern", Maria Schrader starred as an amnesiac woman trying to reconnect with her past in Jan Schomburg's "Vergiss mein Ich" ("Lose My Self"), which premiered at the 2014 Rotterdam Film Festival and was released in Germany in the spring of the same year.
Maria Schrader played an East German secret service officer in the internationally acclaimed TV series "Deutschland 83" (2015), and moved on to complete her sophomore effort as a director. "Vor der Morgenröte" ("Stefan Zweig - Farewell to Europe") – starring Josef Hader as writer Stefan Zweig who is forced into exile by the rise of the Nazis in 1934 – received nominations for Best Director and Best Female Supporting Actor (Barbara Sukowa) at the 2016 German Film Awards.
In the next few years, she was seen as a boarding school principal in "Hanni & Nanni - Mehr als beste Freunde" (2017), as well as in the lead role of an investigator in the four-part British science fiction crime series "The City & the City" (2018). Schrader played a supporting role (also as a police officer) in the British crime series "Fortitude" (2018). She then revisited the role of Lenora Rauch for "Deutschland 86" (2018) and "Deutschland 89" (2020).
Schrader also continued her theatre work: in 2017, her production of "Peer Gynt" premiered at the Schauspielhaus Hamburg, where she also played Martha in "Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf?" In 2020.
In 2020, Schrader directed the Netflix miniseries "Unorthodox," based on the book by Deborah Feldman, about a Brooklyn Jewish woman who flees her strict Orthodox environment to live a free life in Berlin. The series won two Emmy Primetime Awards in the U.S., in the Best Director of a Miniseries category and for Best Actress (Shira Haas). Schrader was also the first German director ever to be nominated for an Emmy. "Unorthodox" also received nominations at the Golden Globe Awards for Best Miniseries and Best Lead Actress in a Miniseries, respectively.
In 2021, Schrader was invited to the competition of the 71st Berlinale with her feature film "Ich bin dein Mensch" ("I'm Your Man"). She had again co-authored the screenplay with Jan Schomburg.