Stefan Eberlein was born in Laupheim in 1967. From 1994 until 1998, he studied communication studies, sociology and history in Munich. As a production assistant, he garnered practical experiences on films like "Der Totmacher" ("The Deathmaker", 1995). Eberlein made his directorial debut with the TV short doc "Keine Schonzeit für Füchse" (1998), which depicted the rituals and ideologies of conservative university fraternities. He worked on Romuald Karmakar's "Das Himmler-Projekt" ("The Himmler Project", 2000), and in the same year, he and Manuel Fenn co-founded their production company Filmbüro Süd, through which the two began to make documentaries and TV features.

Eberlein himself helmed the TV documentary series "Einsatz im Krisengebiet" (2006), and also directed the TV features "Hippie, Lebenskünstler, Diplomat" (2009) and "Ab nach Tadschikistan" (2010). Among his other TV credits are the documentaries "Mein Krieg im Frieden" (2008), "Abschied für immer – Wenn die Eltern sterben" (2012) and "Countdown Afghanistan" (2014).

Eberlein's feature-length documentary "Parchim International" premiered at the 2015 DOK Leipzig Festival. The film, which chronicles the attempt of a Chinese entrepreneur to turn a defunct military airport in rural East Germany into an international air cargo hub, won the award for Best Documentary at the 2016 Filmkunstfest Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.