Meltem Kaptan was born on July 8, 1980 in Gütersloh and grew up in Marienfeld and Harsewinkel. After graduating from high school, she began studying English, media studies and graphic arts/painting in Marburg and Istanbul. In 2002, she moved to Washington, where she was accepted into the National Society of Collegiate Scholars and trained in acting and singing at Western Washington University's Faculty of Theatre and Performing Arts. Beginning in 2003, Kaplan performed in musicals in Washington as a member of the Summer Stock Company, including "West Side Story" and "Sweeney Todd". She was also working as a radio host. Back in Istanbul, she trained at the Müjdat Gezen Acting School from 2004 to 2005.

Meltem Kaptan was a founding member of the English Theatre in Marburg in 2004, where she also worked as a director. From 2007, she conceived, wrote and spoke radio comedy formats for the stations 1 Live, WDR Funkhaus Europa/Cosmo as well as KiRaKa. In 2008, she appeared on the comedy format "Nightwash Live", followed by "Quatsch Comedy Club" and "1 Live Hörsaal-Comedy." Other formats in which she participated included "Ladies Night", "Die Bülent Ceylan Show" and "Cindy und die Jungen Wilden". In 2013, she went on tour with her own comedy program "DesOrientiert".

In addition to her work as a comedian, Kaptan also began to work as a seminar actress in the field of communication for business and politics. In 2013, for example, she developed a comedy character for the Federal Chancellery, Department of Bureaucracy Reduction, and moderated the 2015 Integration Conference in Mettmann.

As a film actress, she was seen in the ensemble of the Turkish action comedy "Ölumlü Dünya" in 2017. In July 2019, Kaptan took turns hosting the comedy and cabaret show "Ladies Night" with Daphne de Luxe and Lisa Feller.

Much more serious was the feature film in which director Andreas Dresen cast her: In "Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush," Kaptan played the lead role of the mother of Murat Kurnaz, who was taken to the Guantanamo prison camp in 2002 and held without charge for four years. The film premiered in competition at the Berlinale 2022, where Kaptan was awarded the Best Acting Prize by the jury.