Johanna Wokalek, born March 3, 1975, in Freiburg im Breisgau, attended drama school at Vienna's Max-Reinhardt-Seminar. In 1996, she made her debut at Wiener Festwochen in the play "Alma – A Show biz ans Ende", directed by Paulus Manker. The play was later adapted for television, again starring Wokalek. In 1998, Wokalek played her first leading role on the big screen in Max Färberböck's "Aimée und Jaguar" ("Aimée & Jaguar") while she was still studying in Vienna. She also starred in the TV series "Der Laden" ("The Store", directed by Jo Baier) and in the TV movie "Die Reise" (directed by Pierre Koralnik). After finishing drama school, she became a cast member of Schauspiel Bonn for three years, before she returned to Vienna to perform at Burgtheater.

In 1999, Wokalek was named "Best young actress of the year". In 2003, she won the Bavarian film award and the Förderpreis Deutscher Film Schauspiel for the leading role of Lene in Hans Steinbichler's unconventional regional drama "Hierankl". Furthermore, she won the Grimme award in 2006. In 2005, she became known to a larger audience in Til Schweiger's successful love drama "Barfuss" ("Barefoot") where she played Leila, who is in psychiatric therapy, and clings to her life saver in order to stay with him.

After another leading role in a movie in the metaphorical "Social Fiction" drama "Weisse Lilien" ("Silent Resident"), Wokalek was seen as Gudrun Ensslin in the fall of 2008 in Bernd Eichinger's elaborate and star-studded production of Stefan Aust's RAF history "Der Baader Meinhof Komplex", directed by Uli Edel. In Sönke Wortmann's film version of the historical novel "Die Päpstin" ("Pope Joan"), opening in octobre 2009, Wokalek replaced Franka Potente in the leading role.

In 2010 she played one of two sisters in Lars Kraume's dystopic vision of the near future "Die kommenden Tage" ("The Days to Come"). As Cecilia she falls in love with the sinister Konstantin (August Diehl) and drifts into a new terroristic movement. She received much critical acclaim for the portrayal of the main character Tiffany Blechschmid in Sherry Hormann's bestseller adaptation "Anleitung zum Unglücklichsein" ("The Pursuit to Unhappiness", 2012).

In 2013, she played the lead role in the music video of the Depeche Mode song 'Halo' and appeared on Depeche Mode’s DVD "Depeche Mode Live in Berlin" in a cameo role as a prostitute at the brothel "Bel Ami".

In addition to her screen roles, she has been regularly appearing on stage at Vienna's Burgtheater, starring in productions of "Das Begräbnis" (2010, Director: Thomas Vinterberg), "Platonov" (2011) and "Tartuffe" (2013) among others. In 2015, she left the Burgtheater and took some time out from acting.

In 2017, Johanna Wokalek came back from her break starring in the lead role of Matthias Glasner's TV two-parter "Landgericht – Geschichte einer Familie" ("Redemption Road"), in which she portrays a Jewish woman, who tries to reunite her family after the end of the Nazi era. For her performance, Wokalek together with her co-stars and the director won the prestigious Grimme Prize in Gold. Also in 2017, she played a mother and wife in Jan Speckenbach's drama "Freiheit" ("Freedom", DE/SK), who leaves her family and the past behind. Lighter fare was Detlev Buck's ensemble comedy "Wuff - Folge dem Hund" (2018), in which she starred as an unhappily married woman.