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Thomas Niehaus was born in Lübeck in 1981. He got his first professional stage role at the age of 12, when he applied for the part of Michel of Lönneberga at the Lübeck open-air theater, which he eventually portrayed for one summer. He gained further stage experience in the theater group of his Waldorf school, of which he was a member until the 12th grade.
After graduating from school, Niehaus studied acting at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media from 2001 to 2004. During this time, he performed at the Theater Lübeck and the Staatstheater Hannover. Even before graduating, he became part of the regular ensemble at the Berliner Ensemble under Claus Peymann in 2004. There he made his debut in the 2004/05 season in Elfriede Jelinek's "Wolken. Heim Und dann nach Hause." His other roles included Andri in Max Frisch's "Andorra" and the Temple Lord in Lessing's "Nathan the Wise".
In the 2009/10 season, Niehaus joined the ensemble of Hamburg's Thalia Theater. In the following ten years, he appeared on stage there as Legendre in "Danton's Death" (2011/12), in the leading role of Fallada's "Alone in Berlin" (2012/13), and as Tiger Brown in "The Three Penny Opera" (2015/16), among others.
In 2014, he received the Rolf Mares Prize with the ensemble of the play "Moby Dick"; in 2017, his production of "Wenn die Rolle singt oder der vollkommene Angler" (together with Paul Schröder) was awarded the Critics' and Audience Prize at the Radikal-jung - Festival of Young Directors. At the end of the 2019/20 season, Niehaus left the ensemble of the Thalia Theater, but remained connected to the house as a guest. He received another Rolf Mares Award for his leading role in the play "Mittagsstunde" in 2021.
From 2015, Niehaus also began to work regularly for television and big screen productions, initially mostly in smaller supporting roles. He had smaller parts in the comedy "Heiraten ist nichts für Feiglinge" (2015, TV) and the coming-of-age film "Simon sagt auf Wiedersehen zu seiner Vorhaut" ("Time to Say Goodbye", 2015), was a teacher in the thriller "LenaLove" (2016) and a rehab doctor in the romantic comedy "Zweibettzimmer" (2017, TV). In the miniseries "Bruder - Schwarze Macht" (2017), Niehaus had a supporting role as the owner of a shady internet store. He also took on episode lead roles in "Der Tatortreiniger" ("Crime Scene Cleaner", 2018) and "Bettys Diagnose" (2020).
Niehaus had leading roles in the feature film "Tagundnachtgleiche" ("Equinox", 2018), as a grieving man who falls in love with the unsuspecting sister of his deceased partner, and as a police officer in the crime thriller "Nord bei Nordwest - Der Ring" (2022, TV).
Also in 2022, he appeared in the lead role in the award-winning real-time thriller "Ach du Scheiße!" ("Holy Shit!"), about a man who wakes up covered in blood in a locked porta-potty and has 90 minutes to free himself and save the life of the love of his life. Niehaus won Best Actor at the Fright Nights Festival in Pasching, Austria. The film was released in German theaters in October 2022.