Andreas Kleinert, born 1962 in Berlin, worked as an art director assistant at DEFA studios and studied directing at Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen "Konrad Wolf" in Potsdam-Babelsberg. Since 1989, he works as a free-lance author and director. Kleinert"s feature film debut "Leb" wohl, Joseph" was selected for the programme of the 1990 Locarno Film Festival. In 1998, Kleinert caused a stir with his drama "Wege in die Nacht" ("Paths In The Night") about an unemployed manufacturer who wants to impose "law and order" in Berlin on his own account. The film won the Grimme award among others.

During the following years, Kleinert mainly worked for TV productions: He directed the mini-series "Die Klemperer Tagebücher" (1999), TV movies such as "Kelly Bastian –Geschichte einer Hoffnung" (2001), and several episodes of the crime series "Schimanski" and "Polizeiruf: 110". His "Polizeiruf: 110" episode "Kleine Frau" won a Grimme award in 2006. In 2003, Kleinert"s highly praised TV drama "Mein Vater" ("Mein Vater", 2003), starring Götz George and Ulrike Krumbiegel, won the Grimme viewer"s choice award. In 2008, Kleinert returned to the big screen and directed the ambitious mystery drama "Freischwimmer" ("Head Under Water").