Oliver Paulus was born in Dornach in 1969. After studying design in Basel, he enrolled at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. Between 1994 and 2001, he completed several award-winning shorts: In 1995, "His Mother's Voice" was named Best Short Film at the Max Ophüls Preis, and two years later, Paulus was awarded the "Werksjahrespreis" of the Swiss canton Solothurn. Moreover, the short film "Die Wurstverkäuferin" (2001), the beginning of a long-time cooperation with Stefan Hillebrand, was nominated for the Swiss Film Prize and won the Audience Award at the Hamburg International Short Film Festival.

In 2003, Oliver Paulus made his feature film debut as director with "Wenn der Richtige kommt". The romantic comedy about a cleaning lady who falls in love with security guard and follows him to Turkey was screened at numerous festivals from Bangladesh to San Sebastian, and garnered several awards and recommendations. In 2005, Paulus was invited to direct an advertisement for "Parisienne People", a series of clips, which already featured renowned directors like Jean-Luc Godard, Robert Altman and David Lynch.

Paulus' second feature-length film "Wir werden uns wiederseh'n" (2006) deals with the romantic mishaps of a geriatric nurse and was also awarded several festival prizes. "Tandoori Love", his third feature film, premiered at the Zurich Film Festival in the autumn of 2008, the same time Paulus received the "Anerkennungspreis für Filmschaffen" of the canton Solothurn. "Tandoori Love", a Bollywood-style comedy about an Indian cook in rural Switzerland, went on to win the Swiss Prize for Film Scores at the Locarno International Film Festival.