Rita Lengyel was born in Düsseldorf in 1973 and grew up in Budapest, Cologne and Berlin. Without formal training, she took up acting and in 1991 gave her screen debut in Klaus Emmerich's comedy "Pizza Colonia" starring Mario Adorf. Since then, she has played supporting as well as leading roles in numerous TV productions like "Domenica" (1993), "Blut an der Wiege" (1994), "Nadine im Bistro" (1996), "Schrei - denn ich werde dich töten!" (1999) and "Das allerbeste Stück" (2004). She also had recurring roles in the series "Klinikum Berlin Mitte" (1999/2000), "Vater wider Willen" (1998-2001) and "Fünf Sterne" (2005/2006).

Rita Lengyel also had a number of screen roles so far. She played leads in the fantasy movie "Planet B: Mask under Mask" (2002) and in Hannes Stöhr's tragicomedy "Berlin Calling" (2008).

From 2003 to 2010, she studied direction at the renowned film academy HFF Potdam-Babelsberg. In 2007, her short film "Berlin Budapest" won the DEFA Newcomer Award.

Her first feature film as director was the documentary "Mein Ungarn in Berlin".