Yasemin Şamdereli was born in Dortmund on July 15 1973. From 1993 until 2000, she studied at the Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen (HFF) in Munich. During that time, she worked freelance at Bavaria-Film and as an assistant director on international film productions.

Şamdereli directed the 2002 TV comedy "Alles getürkt!" and worked as a writer on the successful TV show "Türkisch für Anfänger". She also moonlighted as an actress in the short movie "Delicious" from 2004. Şamdereli's first theatrical release was "Almanya – Willkommen in Deutschland" in 2011. The film, which she co-wrote with her sister Nesrin Şamdereli, celebrated its premiere in the competition of the 2011 Berlin IFF and went on to win the award for Best Screenplay and a silver award in the category Best Feature Film at the 2011 German Film Awards. Moreover, the film won the awards for Best Screenplay and Best Feature Film Debut at
the German Film Critics Awards.

Yasemin Şamdereli, her sister Nesrin and producer Anja-Karina Richter together founded the production company S2R Filmproduktion in 2013, through which Şamdereli completed her sophomore feature "Die Nacht der Nächte" ("The Night of All Nights") in 2014. The film about four couples from three continents who have been together for more than 50 years was named Best Documentary at the 2018 Bavarian Film Awards.

In March 2020, Şamdereli directed the TV movie "Barfuß durch Australien", a mother-daughter drama set against the backdrop of intercultural friendship. However, the film wasn't aired until nearly three years later, by which time Şamdereli had withdrawn her name from the project, crediting it under the pseudonym Alan Smithee.

By then, Şamdereli had already moved on to her next feature film, "Samia", an international co-production about Somali athlete Samia Yusuf Omar, who discovered her passion for sports as a child and went on to compete in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York in June 2024, where it received critical acclaim, and won the Audience Award at the Munich Film Festival. "Samia" was released in German cinemas in September 2024.