Jakob Preuss, born in Berlin in 1975, completed his A level in Dijon, France, before studying law in Cologne and Paris as well as European Studies in Warsaw. In 1999/2000 he did civilian national service in Russia and was a trainee with the EU delegation in Moscow as well as with the Department for Foreign Affairs in Berlin in 2002. Two years later, Preuss was sent to the Ukraine as an election observer. In 2007 and 2008, he acted as CIS liaisons officer for the human rights organization "Reporters without Borders" in Berlin. In 2019, he became EU liaisons officer for the Green Party faction.

His first documentary feature "The Other Chelsea - Eine Geschichte aus Donezk" ("The Other Chelsea: A Story from Donetsk") premiered at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in 2010. The film tells the story of the Ukraine's political and economic stagnation using the example of the coal-mining centre Donetsk and its famous football club Shakhtar Donetsk. For "The Other Chelsea" Preuss received a number of awards, such as the Max Ophüls-Preis 2011 as Best Documentary Feature, the First Steps Award and a Grimme-Preis.

Jakob Preuss is co-founder of "#GehtAuchAnders", an initiative for artists to get politically involved and take a stand on current issues. In 2014, he began working on his second documentary film "Als Paul über das Meer kam - Tagebuch einer Begegnung" ("When Paul came over the sea – Journal of an Encounter", 2014-2017). The story of his encounter with a refugee from Cameroon in Morocco, waiting for a chance to get to Europe, poses the question for Preuss whether to actively intervene and lend a helping hand or not. The film won several prizes on International film festivals, e.g in Shanghai and at the Bergamo Film Meeting. Its theatrical release in Germany was in August 2017.