Helena Hufnagel was born in Gießen on August 1 1985. After getting a degree in communications from Munich University, she enrolled at the Münchner Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film (HFF) in 2009. At the HFF, she studied media economics, production and creative writing.

Her student documentary short "Erntefaktor Null" (2012) dealt with the nuclear power plant in Zwentendorf, Austria. It was the opening film of the DOK forum at the 2012 DOK fest München and was nominated for German Shorts Award. Her graduation film, the 14 minutes long "Willa" (2015), was based on a short story by Stephen King, and it screened successfully at several international festivals.

Under the banner of her production company Cocofilms, she began to work on her feature film debut "Einmal bitte alles" in 2015. The coming-of-age story of a young female graphic designer who has to come to terms with her life premiered in the competition of the 2017 Max Ophüls Preis and was released theatrically in July 2017. At the Bavarian Film Awards 2018, "Einmal bitte alles" won the VGF Award.  

As a producer, Helena Hufnagel was involved in the comedy series "Technically Single" (2018). "Die harte Kern" (2019) from the "Tatort" series, in which the Weimar investigator duo Lessing and Dorn must solve a bizarre case in the surroundings of a scrap yard, received much critical praise.   

In 2020, Hufnagel shot her next feature film under difficult Corona conditions, the romantic comedy "Generation Beziehungsunfähig" ("Commitment Phobia") starring Frederick Lau and Luise Heyer. It was released in the summer of 2021.