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Lars Jessen, born April 13, 1969, in Kiel, studied history, political science, and philosophy at Cologne's university. After his graduation, he enrolled in the department of film and TV at Cologne's Kunsthochschule für Medien.
In 1997, he finished his studies with his graduation film, the documentary film "Lübke – Eine Suche nach dem Bundespräsidenten Heinrich Lübke". He then made a traineeship as a director for the TV series "Lindenstraße" and worked for several years for the Cologne-based TV project Kanal 4.
From 1998 on, Lars Jessen directed numerous TV formats, including six episodes of the TV series "Die Wache" (RTL), 13 episodes of "Aus gutem Haus" (ARD), three episodes of "Soko Wismar (ZDF), and 21 episodes "Großstadtrevier" (ARD).
In 2005, Jessen made his debut on the movie screen with the film "Am Tag als Bobby Ewing starb" ("The Day Bobby Ewing Died"), a coming-of-age story situated in the 1980s about the adaptive difficulties of a 17-year old boy who moves into a commune of anti-nuclear activists with his mother. The satirical, yet sensitive film won several awards, including the award of "Best Film" at the Film Festival "Max Ophuels Preis", and the award of "Best Debut Film" from the association of film critics.
Afterwards, Jessen finished several pieces for TV, including the ZDF TV movie "Zwei gegen Zwei", the TV crime series "Doppelter Einsatz" (RTL), and several episodes of the TV series "Der Dicke" (ARD). Besides a "Tatort" episode and the ZDF TV movie "Butter bei die Fische", Jessen finished another film for the movie screen, "Die Schimmelreiter" ("Sheep and Chips"), in 2008. In the spring of 2009, his movie adaptation of Rocko Schamoni's novel "Dorfpunks" was released.
2010 saw the release of "Hochzeitspolka": Starring Christian Ulmen, the culture clash comedy tells the story of a young German who relocates to Poland and falls in love – only to be unexpectedly revisited by his past on the day before his wedding.
He then directed the TV production "Fischer sucht Frau" (2011) about a grumpy East Frisian shrimper who falls in love with a Moroccan woman during a vacation. He also helmed an episode of the series "Mord mit Aussicht", several episodes of "Der Dicke" and the crime caper "Balthasar Berg – Sylt sehen und sterben" (2012) starring Dieter Pfaff.
In November 2012, Jessen's new feature film was released: "Fraktus" is a hilarious mockumentary about the comeback of a seminal electro-pop band.
For the next ten years, he worked exclusively for television. He shot, among others, six episodes of the crime series "Mord mit Aussicht" (2012-2014), seven episodes of "Großstadtrevier" (until 2015), three "Tatort" episodes (2013, 2016, 2017) and the miniseries "Der letzte Cowboy" (2016), about a middle-aged man (Hasso Grüdel) who is thrown back into an existence as a vacuum cleaner salesman. His TV films include the relationship comedy "Mein gebrauchter Mann" (2015), about a fresh-faced couple in their early 40s who, despite all their differences, dream of a future together; the laconic tragicomedy "Jürgen - Heute wird gelebt" (2017), with Heinz Strunk as a lonely doorman; and the father-son story "Vadder, Kutter, Sohn" (2017). Jessen's "Tatort" episode "Kindeswohl" (2019), which he also co-wrote, about children who are sent to foster families in Eastern Europe out of greed for money, received very good reviews. Between 2019 and 2021, Jessen directed 17 episodes of the comedy series "Check. Check" with Klaas Heufer-Umlauf.
In 2020, he received the Art Award of the State of Schleswig-Holstein for his body of work. Jessen directed the road movie "Für immer Sommer 90" (2021), which was made during the Corona pandemic and whose dialogues were largely improvised, together with Jan Georg Schütte. Together with co-writer and lead actor Charly Hübner, the two were awarded the prestigious Grimme Prize. At the German Television Awards, "Für immer Sommer 90" won the prize for Best Television Film.
With "Mittagsstunde," Lars Jessen made his returned as a feature film director in 2022. The film, about a man in his late forties (Charly Hübner) who returns to his North Frisian homeland to care for his parents, was an adaptation of Dörte Hansen's bestseller of the same name. It was released in September 2022.