Irina Potapenko was born in Crimea in 1986. At the age of eight, she moved to Berlin with her mother where she later was discovered by an assistant of renowned stage director Frank Castorf, who eventually cast the then 14-year-old in his production of Dostojewski's "Erniedrigte und Beleidigte" at the Volksbühne. In the following years, Castorf frequently cast her in several more plays that enjoyed great success.

Irina Potapenko made her screen debut in the award-winning drama "Prinzessin" ("Princess", 2006), in which she plays a young immigrant who roams a run-down housing complex with her delinquent friend. Potapenko also got very positive reviews for her performance in Götz Spielmann's "Revanche" (AT 2008), in which she plays an Ukranian prostitute who joins her boyfriend in an ill-fated bank robbery. Her turn won Potapenko the award for Best Newcomer at the Max-Ophüls-Preis Festival.

Following her roles in Markus Imboden's "Mörder auf Amrum" (2009, TV) and Lars Kraume's "Die kommenden Tage" ("The Days to Come", 2010), Potapenko was the female lead in "Anduni – Fremde Heimat" (DE/LU 2011), playing an Armenian woman torn between family obligations and her wish for a new beginning.
After memorable supporting roles in "Die Besucher" (2011) and "Die Lügen der Sieger" ("The Lies of The Victors", 2014), Potapenko starred in Jan Krüger's "Die Geschwister" ("Brother and Sister", 2016), in which a mysterious brother-sister pair shakes up the life of a Berlin real estate agent.