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Uli Decker was born in Upper Bavaria and grew up in Murnau in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps in the 1980s – an environment whose conservatism and Catholicism she said she found "stifling" and from which she wanted to break free from an early age. "It's a facade, this normality," she told the Süddeutsche Zeitung in 2022; her father had suffered from depression.
After graduating from high school, Decker went to Brazil for a year, where she lived with farmers in the Amazon rainforest, which according to her own words was an extremely formative time for her. Back in Europe, she studied Spanish and Portuguese literature as well as theater and film studies at King's College London, Humboldt University Berlin and Universidad Complutense Madrid. In addition to her studies, she worked as a freelance journalist and as an actress and assistant director on theater and film productions.
From 2004 to 2006 she completed a master's degree in Creative Documentary at the Universidad Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. She realized reportages on the deforestation of the rainforest ("Aufstand am Amazonas", 2009) and on the everyday life of Brazilian women ("Amazons", 2009). Her documentary "Kelly" (DE/IT 2017, together with Felipe Frozza) portrayed a Brazilian transgender person who keeps her head above water with prostitution in an Italian resort, but does not give up her dreams. In the 19-minute documentary "Hassan," Decker followed a 14-year-old Palestinian living in the divided city of Hebron. Decker's documentary project "Welcome to Loisachtal," realized between 2015 and 2020, portrayed the (thoroughly positive) interaction of the residents of Murnau with newly arrived asylum seekers. Decker also did several music and stage recordings.
In her first feature-length documentary film produced for the big screen, Uli Decker dealt with an extremely personal subject. From her father's estate she had learned of his secret to secretly dress as a woman. For "Anima - Die Kleider meines Vaters" ("Anima - My Father's Dresses", 2022), she explored this part of her family history, but also asked universal questions about the boundaries of gender, clothing and sexuality. The film premiered in January 2022 at the Max Ophüls Preis Film Festival, where it won Best Documentary and the Audience Award for Documentary. At the Achtung Berlin festival, "Anima - Die Kleider meines Vaters" also received the Best Documentary Award and the Ecumenical Jury Award. The theatrical release was in October 2022.