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Markus Dietrich was born in Strausberg on July 26 1979. In 1999, he was one of the co-founders of the film collective Maniac film, and in 2001, he studied theatre in Berlin for a short period of time. The same year, he received a scholarship, and in 2001, he enrolled at the Bauhaus University in Weimar where he studied media design. In addition to this, he started working in script development, became an assistant to filmmaker Gordian Maugg and completed several shorts films.
Following his graduation in 2006, Dietrich continued his education in film, and between 2007 and 2008, he was a directing stipendiary at the Thalia theatre in Halle, where he later helmed several stage productions. In 2007, Dietrich was a co-founder of the production company Gruppe Weimar, a label under which he completed numerous, often award-winning shorts. "Mein Robodad" and "Outsourcing" were part of German Film's Next Generation Reel and premiered at the Cannes IFF. Moreover, "Outsourcing" won the Murnau Short Film Award. His childrens' short film "Teleportation" premiered at the 2009 Berlin IFF.
In 2012, Dietrich started work on his feature film debut "Sputnik". The fantastic story of a couple of East-German kids who miraculously cause the opening of the German-German-boarder in 1989 is set for a release in late 2013. At the Preis der deutschen Filmkritik "Sputnik" won in the category Best Children's Film; in the same category the film was also nominated for the German Film Award.
Between 2013 and 2016 Dietrich directed numerous episodes of "Schloss Einstein", a daily soap for children that depicts everyday life on a (fictitious) boarding school. "Prinz Himmelblau und Fee Lupine" (2016), a fairytale film, was also created for television.
At the Amsterdam Cinekid Festival in autumn 2018 Markus Dietrich presented the children's adventure film "Invisible Sue - Plötzlich unsichtbar" ("Invisible Sue"), about a 12-year-old outsider who suddenly gains the ability to make herself invisible. The film won the Audience Award at the International Children's Film Festival in Montréal (Canada), and the Children's Jury Award at the Oulu Children's and Youth Film Festival (Finland). In autumn 2019 "Invisible Sue - Plötzlich unsichtbar" had its theatrical release in Germany.