Johannes Schmid was born on October 23 1973. After studying German literature, art history, music, drama and film in Erlangen and Munich, he worked as an assistant director at several theatres and eventually started to direct plays himself.  In 2001, he and Philipp Budweg founded the production company "schlicht und ergreifend". Following several shorts, he made his feature-length debut with the children's film "Blöde Mütze" ("Silly′s Sweet Summer"), which premiered at the 2007 Berlin IFF and went on to win several awards at German and international festivals. In 2011, his sophomore film "Wintertochter" ("Winter Daughter") won a screenwriting award at festival "Golderner Spatz" as well as the German Film award for Best Children's Film.

Johannes Schmid continued to work in theatre, directing the musical "Anatevka – Fiddler on the Roof" at the Dortmund opera house in 2013, Mozart's "Entführung aus dem Serail" at the Theater Sankt Gallen in 2014, and "Ronja Räubertochter", which was staged at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf/Duisburg (2015), the Dortmund opera (2016) and the Bonn opera house (2016/17).

His next feature film "Agnes" premiered at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in January 2016. The film about the unusual romance between a novelist and a student in which the distinction between fiction and reality becomes increasingly blurred, garnered female lead Odine Johne the newcomer award at the Max-Ophüls-Preis festival.

Schmid then turned his attention back to working in theater. His production of "The Snow Queen" was staged at Deutsche Oper am Rhein in 2016, Dortmund Opera in 2018 and Bonn Opera in 2019. Other productions include "The Vampyr" (2018) at Läcko Slott Opera in Sweden and "Paranoid Park" (based on the novel by Blake Nelson) at Malmö Stadsteater in Sweden.

With "Geschichten vom Franz" ("Tales of Franz", AT/DE 2022), based on the eponymous children's book series, Johannes Schmid realized another successful feature film. The film was nominated in the categories Best Feature Film and Best Director of a Feature Film at the Austrian Television and Film Awards Romy. The sequel "Neue Geschichten vom Franz" ("New Tales of Franz", AT/DE 2023) was released the following year.