Lena May Graf was born in Munich, Germany in 1987 and grew up in Massachusetts, USA. Her parents are the filmmakers Sherry Hormann and Dominik Graf. She made her first film appearance in 1995, directed by her mother, in the comedy "Irren ist männlich" ("Doubting Thomas") as the film daughter of Herbert Knaup and Corinna Harfouch. Dominik Graf was also part of the main cast of the film. A few years later, under his direction, she appeared in the film essay "München - Geheimnisse einer Stadt" ("Munich - Secrets of a City", 2000).    

From 2005 to 2009, Lena May Graf studied politics and journalism at the American University of Paris and New York University. In 2011, she moved to Berlin and gained practical experience in the film industry as a set design intern on Dominik Graf's TV crime film "Das unsichtbare Mädchen" (2011), in costume and production design, and as an assistant to the renowned casting director Simone Bär.   

In 2015, Graf began working as a screenwriter. She was involved as a junior producer in the highly acclaimed TV drama "Operation Zucker - Jagdgesellschaft" ("Operation Sugar", 2016, directed by Sherry Hormann). For Detlev Buck, she edited the dialogues for the relationship comedy "Wuff - Folge dem Hund" (2018). Together with Gabriela Sperl, she wrote the script for the social drama "Wir lieben das Leben" (2018, TV), which was subsequently directed by her mother. In 2021, Lena May Graf realized her first own work as a director with the short film "Die Komode". For Leander Haussmann, she worked as a script consultant for his "Stasikomödie" ("A Stasi Comedy", 2022).  

Shortly thereafter, Charly Hübner directed her adaptation of Thees Uhlmann's novel "Sophia, der Tod und ich" ("Sophia, Death and Me"). The road movie comedy was released in the summer of 2023 and was a hit with critics and audiences. Just a few weeks later, Graf's own feature film debut was released in German cinemas: the romantic comedy "Trauzeugen," which she co-directed with Finn Christoph Stroeks from his screenplay.