Lisa Maria Potthoff was born in Berlin on July 25, 1978 and grew up near Munich. After appearing as an extra in an episode of "Derrick" at the age of 14, she appeared as an actress in smaller roles in series such as "Marienhof" and "Flughafenklinik" from the age of 16. In 1997, she began a two-year training at the Munich Schauspielhaus theater. This was followed by stage appearances at the Munich Volkstheater and the Theater Dortmund as well as numerous supporting roles in TV series such as "Soko 5113", "Bei aller Liebe" (in 30 episodes), "Polizeiruf 110" and in TV movies such as Dominik Graf's highly praised acclaimed drama "Bittere Unschuld" (1999). She finally caught the attention of critics and audiences with a leading role in the TV thriller "Die Tochter des Kommissars" (2001).  

Potthoff's breakthrough in film came in 2003 with a role in Gregor Schnitzler's "Soloalbum" ("Solo Album") alongside Matthias Schweighöfer. With roles in such varied films as the award-winning satire "Am Tag als Bobby Ewing starb" ("The Day Bobby Ewing Died"), Sherry Horman's ("Balls), in which she played the coach of a gay soccer team, and the romantic winter sports comedy "Schwere Jungs" ("Heavyweights"), Lisa Maria Potthoff cemented her reputation as one of the most promising young actors in German cinema.

After key supporting roles in equally ambitious and slightly frivolous comedies such as Rothemund's "Pornorama", Maggie Peren's "Stellungswechsel" ("Special Escort"), and Christian Zübert's "Hardcover", Potthoff plays her first leading role in a movie in 2008: In Joseph Vilsmaier's drama "Die Geschichte vom Brandner Kaspar", based on the famous Bavarian folk tale, she portrayed the lovable granddaughter of the title character opposite Franz Xaver Kroetz.

She went on to star in several television movies, including the 2010 multicultural comedy "Zimtstern und Halbmond" based on a screenplay by Daniel Speck), and Rainer Kaufmann's drama "Blaubeerblau" (2011). In 2011, Potthoff could also be seen in two ambitious feature film productions: "Der Himmel hat vier Ecken", a mix of coming-of-age story and social study, and Marcus H. Rosenmüller's period comedy "Der Sommer der Gaukler".

She also had a significant role in Rosenmüller's next film, "Wer's glaubt, wird selig" ("Don't You Believe It!"), in 2012, playing a resident of a Bavarian ski resort whose domineering mother suddenly passes away and is to be canonized to attract pilgrims. 

In the same year, she was nominated for the Bavarian Television Award for her leading role in the drama "Tödlicher Rausch". In the film, she portrayed a villager who investigates the alleged accidental death of her younger brother. She had other notable television roles as a detective in the thriller "Blutadler" in 2012 and as a businesswoman's wife haunted by her past as a burglar in Lars Becker's crime comedy "Trau niemals deiner Frau" (DE AT 2012).

Based on Rita Falk's successful Eberhofer crime novels, the first film adaptation of the stories about former detective Franz Eberhofer, titled "Dampfnudelblues," was created in 2013. In the film, Potthof played the girlfriend of the clumsy main character, a role she reprised in the subsequent years in the numerous sequels of the series, including "Winterkartoffelknödel" (2014), "Grießnockerlaffäre" (2017), and "Kaiserschmarrndrama" (2020), all of which were directed by Ed Herzog.

In 2014, director Hannu Salonen cast Potthoff in the lead role of a self-assured doctor's daughter and town midwife in his period thriller "Die Hebamme" ("The Midwife"). Potthoff also showed her resolute side in the comedy "Männerhort" ("The Man Cave") as the pregnant wife of a frustrated portable toilet salesman. In "Mörderhus - Der Usedom-Krimi" (2014), the first part of a new crime series, portrayed Potthoff as the chief inspector on the island of Usedom - a role she played in a total of six crime dramas of the series until she exited the show in 2019 with "Winterlicht" when her character fell victim to a murder.

Since 2018, she has taken on the role of the titular detective in the ZDF thriller series "Sarah Kohr," which is typically broadcast once a year. The series was preceded by a first film in 2014, also starring Potthoff as Kohr. Additionally, she appeared in the series "Skylines" (2019) and in the television improvisational road movie "Für immer Sommer 90" (2020) alongside Charly Hübner. Also on TV, she played an investigative journalist in the political thriller "Gefährliche Wahrheit" (2021), an idealistic pharmaceutical company CEO in "Eine riskante Entscheidung" (2021) and a campaigning local resident in the miniseries "Herzogpark" (2022).   

On the big screen, she previously starred in a leading role in the comedy film "Es ist zu deinem Besten" ("It's for Your Own Good", 2020), about three fathers trying to scare off their daughters' admirers, and in the ninth installment of the Eberhofer crime series "Rehragout-Rendezvous" (2023).