Karola Hattop, born 1949 in Berlin, grew up in the GDR, and studied at the department of directing at Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen "Konrad Wolf" in Potsdam-Babelsberg. After her graduation, she worked as a director for Deutscher Fernsehfunk (DFF) and for DEFA-Studio für Spielfilme where she not least made a name for her inventive children"s and family movies: Her film "Mein Vater in der Tinte" (1983), for instance, won the first prize at the Prix Danube festival in Bratislava as well as the special award "Goldener Spatz".

From 1990 to 1994, Hattop worked as a producer, director, but also as a writer for Phantasios-Filmproduktion. Since 1994, Hattop works as a freelance writer and director, mainly for entertaining TV movies like "Scheidung mit Hindernissen (2001) starring Michael von Au or "Herzdamen" (2006) starring Thekla Carola Wied, or for TV series such as "Tierärztin Dr. Mertens" (2006-2007) or "Die Stein" (2008).

In 2008, Hattop returned to the genre of children's movies and finished "Das Morphus Geheimnis" ("Mystery of Morphus "), her first film for the movie screen in 16 years.