Sebastian Schipper was born May 8, 1968, in Hannover. After finishing high school, he studied acting at Munich’s Otto Falckenberg Schule from 1992 to 1995. Schipper performed at Munich"s Kammerspiele and appeared on the movie screen in Sönke Wortmann"s comedy "Kleine Haie" ("Acting It Out", 1992) while he still studied acting.

Schipper then mainly starred in supporting roles on the movie screen, for instance, as a German soldier in the US production "The English Patient". He was also seen in two films by director Tom Tykwer, in "Winterschläfer" ("Wintersleepers", 1997) and in "Lola rennt" ("Run Lola Run"). Tom Tykwer also acted as X-Filme"s co-producer for "Absolute Giganten" ("Gigantic"), Sebastian Schipper"s debut feature film as writer and director. The film about three adolescent friends who spend their last night in Hamburg together was highly praised by critics and won numerous awards, including the German film award in Silver.

Again as an actor, Schipper starred in Tykwer"s "Der Krieger und die Kaiserin" ("The Princess and the Warrior", 2000), in the boxing drama "Elefantenherz" ("Elephant Heart", 2002), and in Romuald Karmakar"s "Die Nacht singt ihre Lieder" ("Nightsongs", 2004), that ran in the Berlinale competition. With "Ein Freund von mir" ("A Friend of Mine", 2006), Schipper who also directed several commercials in the meantime presented his second film as a director. Oscillating between the genres of comedy and of character study, the film – starring Daniel Brühl, Jürgen Vogel, and Sabine Timoteo in the leading roles – tells the story of the close friendship between two rather different men.

Sebastian Schipper"s most recent project, the film "Mitte Ende August" ("Sometime in August"), is a rendition of Goethe"s novel "Wahlverwandtschaften" and tells the story of a group of people that is going through emotional turmoil during one summer in a house in the country side.