Dominik Graf was born September 6, 1972, as the son of the actors Selma and Robert Graf. In 1972, he took up German language and literature studies as well as musicology at the University of Munich. In 1974, however, he switched to the Academy for Television & Film (HFF), where he shot the short film "Carlas Briefe" during his first academic year. In addition to his studies, he wrote screenplays for the TV series "Auf Achse". Furthermore, he played small roles in feature films such as "Der Mädchenkrieg" (1977, Alf Brustellin, Bernhard Sinkel). He also took on the leading role in Heidi Genée"s comedy "1 + 1 = 3" (1979).

He received the Bavarian Film Award for his graduation film "Der kostbare Gast" (1979). Subsequently, Graf concentrated on his television work and directed several episodes for series such as "Familientag" and "Köberle kommt". With his work on the TV series "Der Fahnder" and the "Tatort" episode "Schwarzes Wochenende" (1985), Graf was able to establish himself as a specialist for action and crime movies.

Mostly produced by the Bavaria Atelier GmbH, some of his movies have also found their way onto the big screen, e.g. "Treffer" (1984), a movie depicting the dreams of three adolescent motorcyclists, and "Tiger, Löwe, Panther" (1989), a drama about three women around their thirties trying to get away from their daily lives. With the TV movie "Bei Thea" (1986), Graf established himself as a sensible director of films depicting German-Jewish issues. His attempts at comedic filmmaking, however, turned out to be less successful. Examples include the 1985 comedy "Drei gegen Drei" (starring the German band "Trio"), the genre mixture "Spieler" (1990), and the Bavarian doctor"s skit "Dr. Knock" (1997).

His action movies, on the other hand, have been praised for their tension-filled plot constructions as well as the professional directing. His thriller movie "Die Katze" ("The Cat", 1987), depicting a bank robbery with hostage-taking, won him the German Film Award for Best Director. Leading actor Götz George also starred in the ecological thriller series "Morlock", for which Graf contributed the movie "Die Verflechtung" (1992). While the ensemble film "Die Sieger" (1994), revolving around the members of a special police unit and produced with great expense by Günter Rohrbach, flopped at the box office, critics praised the movie as a technically outstanding genre piece.

During the following years, Dominik Graf worked mostly for television. As far as his choice of subjects is concerned, he kept switching between controversial genre pieces such as "Sperling und der brennende Arm", melodramas such as "Bittere Unschuld" (starring Elmar Wepper in the leading role), and poetic movies such as "Die Freunde der Freunde".

In 2002, Graf returned to the cinema with the disputed movie "Der Felsen" ("A Map of the Heart"). Depicting the amour fou between a teenage delinquent and an adult woman, the film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and caused controversial reactions – not least because Graf and his cinematographer Benedict Neuenfels had shot the movie on video both for cost reasons and out of aesthetic considerations.

Subsequently, Graf directed two more highly-praised TV productions: "Hotte im Paradies", in which he told the story of an unsuccessful Berlin pimp, and "Kalter Frühling", a drama depicting the story of a young woman who weaves a web of intrigues in order to take over her parent"s business. After finishing work on "Der rote Kakadu" ("The Red Cockatoo"), a big screen movie in which he depicted the story of the legendary Dresden dance club of the same name, Graf returned to television again. His crime movie "Er sollte tot", which was part of the "Polizeiruf 110" series, contained scenes of such severe violence that the TV station ARD decided to offer its audience an online discussion with the director after the broadcast.

For his work on "Eine Stadt wird erpresst", in which he depicted both a criminal case and the downfall of East Germany"s countryside, Graf received rave reviews once again.

Since 1990, Graf shares a professorship with Peter Lilienthal and Peter F. Bringmann at the Academy for Media Arts in Cologne. Since 2004, he also holds a professorship for Feature Film Directing at the International Filmschool Cologne.