Neele Leana Vollmar, born in 1978 in Bremen, studied at the Film Academy Baden-Wuerttemberg from 2000-2005. In 2003 she participated in the Berlinale Talent Campus and the Hollywood Masterclass. After multiple short films like "Wattenmeer" (1999), "Tote Fische schwimmen oben" (2002) and the award winning "Meine Eltern" ("My Parents", 2003) she gave her feature film debut with "Urlaub vom Leben" ("Vacation from Life", 2004), followed by the satirical social comedy "Friedliche Zeiten" ("Peaceful Times", 2008).

Her third feature film that started in the summer of 2009 was also a social comedy: "Maria, ihm schmeckt's nicht!" ("Maria, He Doesn't Like It!"), based on Jan Weiler's best-selling novel, tells the story of a German who is confronted with the temperamental Italian family clan of his soon-to-be wife shortly before their wedding.

In 2013, Vollmar began production on her fourth feature-length film "Rico, Oskar und die Tieferschatten" ("The Pasta Detectives"), which later won the award for Best Screenplay at the 2014 Deutsches Kinder-Medien-Festival Goldener Spatz and the "Weißer Elefant"-Award of the Medien-Club München. The film was released theatrically in July 2014. At the Bavarian Film Award 2015, Vollmar was awarded the prize for Best Children's Film; "Rico, Oskar und die Tieferschatten" was also awarded Best Children's and Youth Film at the German Film Award 2015.

Neele Leana Vollmar also directed the sequel to the successful film: "Rico, Oskar und der Diebstahlstein" was released in German cinemas in spring 2016.

After the success of her previous film, Vollmar took a few years off directing. Then, in 2019, "Mein Lotta-Leben - Alles Bingo mit Flamingo!" hit the cinemas; an adaptation of a book within a children’s book series of the same name. Continuing in 2019, she started shooting another adaptation of the bestseller "Auerhaus", about an unconventional shared flat in the german province whose harmonious condition is reaching it‘s limit. It’s theatrical release: December 2019.