Born in Teheran on June 8th 1967 to an Iranian father and a German mother, Jasmin Tabatabai fled with her mother to Bavaria after the Khomeini Revolution. Studying at the Stuttgart University for Music and the Arts from 1988 to 1992, she made her film debut in "Kinder der Landstraße" ("Child on the Open Road", 1992). Her breakthrough came in 1997 with "Bandits" (for which she also composed the soundtrack), followed by salient roles in "Gierig" ("Greedy", 1998) and "Late Show" (1998).

She was the front singer in the all-girl band "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues", played a chanson singer in the movie adaptation of Tucholsky"s "Schloss Gripsholm" ("Gripsholm", 2000), and sang the part of Ulrike Meinhof in "Alzheimer 2000" at the Bonn Opera House. Her first solo album "Only Love" was released in 2002, followed in 2007 by "I Ran".

After the birth of her daughter in 2002, Tabatabai is seen in much less movies, but has a sort of comeback in 2005 with the lead role in the critically acclaimed "Fremde Haut" ("Unveiled"). Afterwards, she plays roles in films like "Elementarteilchen" ("Elementary Particles", 2006), "Vier Minuten" ("Four Minutes", 2006), "Meine schöne Bescherung" ("Messy Christmas") and "Der Baader Meinhof Komplex" ("Baader Meinhof Complex", 2008), followed by another lead role in the international co-production "Altiplano".