Frederick Lau was born August 17, 1989, in Berlin. At young age, he played ice hockey as a team member of the school team of the "Berlin Capitols" and wanted to become a professional ice hockey player. But at the age of ten, Lau became interested in acting. In 1999, he made his TV debut in the episode "Der große Bruder" of the TV series "Achterbahn". He then starred in several smaller roles, for instance in Andreas Dresen's police drama "Die Polizistin" ("The Policewoman", 2000), or in Olaf Kaiser's satire "Drei Stern Rot" ("3 Star Red", 2001).

Lau played his first leading role in "Der Brief des Kosmonauten" ("The Cosmonaut's Letter", 2002), where he played a 10-year-old runaway who finds a new friend in a Russian hedonist. He then starred in supporting roles in several major German productions such as Franziska Buch's "Bibi Blocksberg und das Geheimnis der blauen Eulen" ("Bibi Blocksberg and the Secret of the Blue Owls") and Joseph Vilsmaier's "Bergkristall" ("Rock Crystal"). He also played a leading role in the TV production "Wer küsst schon einen Leguan?" ("Secondhand Child"). For his portrayal of 13 year old Tobias who craves nothing more than a father, Lau won the Best actor's award of the children's jury at the 14th children's film and TV festival "Goldener Spatz" in 2005.

2007 saw Lau once more in a leading role on the big screen: In Andreas Kleinert's morbid small town thriller "Freischwimmer" ("Head Under Water") he played the outsider Rico who is drawn into a series of murders. He then belonged to the cast of "Die Welle" ("The Wave"), Dennis Gansel's film adaptation of a social experiment about dictatorship that was based on a true story. In 2008, Lau won the German film award as best supporting actor for his performance in "Die Welle".

Following this success, he appeared in a string of highly varying roles: He played the deserter son of the female protagonist in the post-war drama "Die Entdeckung der Currywurst" ("The Invention of the Curried Sausage", 2008) and an obedient servant in Julie Delpy's "Die Gräfin" ("The Countess", 2009), followed by his portrayal of a dark and mysterious teenager who lives outside of society's norms in "Was Du nicht siehst" ("What You Don't See") and his intense performance as a sadistic juvenile prisoner in the drama "Picco" (2010).

Lau won the Grimme Award and the Bavarian Television Award for his portrayal of Frank Lehmann in Hermine Huntgeburth's adaptation of the best-selling novel "Neue Vahr Süd" (2010, TV). His TV appearances also include the comedy show "Die Snobs" (2010) and several entries in the "Tatort" series.

Following supporting roles in "Türkisch für Anfänger" ("Turkish for Beginners", 2012) and the sleeper hit "Oh Boy" ("A Coffee in Berlin", 2012), Lau convincingly played a school dropout who runs away with a grief-stricken girl in the drama "Das Leben ist nichts für Feiglinge" ("Life Is Not For Cowards", 2012). Next, he was cast as the male lead in Cüneyt Kaya's debut "Ummah – Unter Freunden", which was released in 2013. In the film, Lau plays an undercover agent who infiltrates a right-wing extremist group, is exposed and eventually has to hide in the Turkish-Arabian community of Berlin.

Lau had a memorable supporting role as the humorous male-nurse who takes care of Dieter Hallervorden's character in "Sein letztes Rennen" ("Back On Track", 2013), and he went on to play a carefree student who suddenly has to look after his grandmother in the made-for-TV drama "Nichts für Feiglinge" (2013). He next appeared as a bank clerk taken hostage in the TV thriller "Ein todsicherer Plan", and played a gang member in the acclaimed feature film release "Wir waren Könige" ("The Kings Surrender", 2014).

After proving his knack for comedy in Marco Kreuzpaintner's "Coming In" (2014), he portrayed an East-German army officer in the TV production "Bornholmer Straße" (2014). 2015 also started as a busy year for Lau with roles in the comedies "3 Türken und ein Baby" and "Traumfrauen" ("Dreamgirls"), the latter being the directorial debut of Anika Decker, the screenwriter of "KeinOhrHasen" ("Rabbit Without Ears"). Lau was also one of the leads in Sebastian Schipper's "Victoria" ("My Name is Victoria"), which premiered at the 2015 Berlin IFF. He next starred opposite Tom Schilling in Oskar Roehler's "Tod den Hippies, es lebe der Punk" ("Punk Berlin 1982"), playing a young man from the countryside who rebels against the dominant hippie culture of the early 1980s by becoming a punk.

He went on to star in the TV productions "Nachspielzeit" (2015) and "Starfighter - Sie wollten den Himmel erobern" (2015), and also had a supporting role in the theatrical release "Outside the Box" (2015). In 2016, Lau played the heir to a family junkyard in "Schrotten!" ("Scrappin'"), and the hopelessly romantic son of a womanizer in "Wie Männer über Frauen reden". Moreover, he embodied the character of Peter Munk in a new adaptation of the fairy tale "Das kalte Herz" ("Heart of Stone", 2016), and had starring roles in the romance "SMS für Dich" ("Text for You", 2016) and the body switch comedy "Seitenwechsel" (2016).

Lau won the actor's award of the Deutsche Akademie für Fernsehen for his portrayal of an undercover police detective in the acclaimed series "4 Blocks" (2017). Moreover, he and co-star David Kross received a Bavarian Film Award for their performances as brothers in the road movie "Simpel" ("My Brother Simple", 2017).

After a major role in the WWII drama "Der Hauptmann" ("The Captain", 2017), Lau starred in the psychological drama "Gutland" (LU/DE/BE 2017). Almost at the same time, the thriller "Spielmacher" ("Playmaker", 2018) was released in cinemas, with Lau as the ex-football player who falls into the clutches of the sports betting mafia. Lau also played an ex-pro footballer in Detlev Buck's ensemble comedy "Wuff - Folge dem Hund" (2018). Lau's humorous side also comes to the forefront in Karoline Herfurth's "Sweethearts" (2019), in which he stars as a policeman taken hostage by an amateur bank robber. Alongside Herfurth and Elyas M'Barek, he also appeared in Bora Dagtekin's satirical comedy "Das perfekte Geheimnis" (2019). With Elyas M'Barek, he also stood in front of the camera for "Nightlife" (2020), in which Lau played a chaotic night owl who turns his buddy's first date into a wild hunt through Berlin.

In the following years, Lau continued to appear in numerous film and television productions. He played the male lead in the relationship story "Generation Beziehungsunfähig" ("Commitment Phobia", DE/CH 2021), portrayed a grieving widower and single father in "Wolke unterm Dach" (2022), and played the role of an alcoholic in the drama "One for the Road" (2023).