Karina Plachetka was born in Strzelce Opolskie, Poland on November 18 1975. After being trained as a classical dancer, she studied at the renowned acting school "Ernst Busch" in Berlin. During that time, she became one of the  protagonists in Andres Veiel's long-term documentary "Die Spielwütigen" (2004), which follows four students over the course of their acting classes.

Along with  her stage career, she began to appear frequently in TV and film productions. She guest-starred in the TV shows "Polizeiruf 110" (Episode: "Das Zeichen", 2004), "KDD – Kriminaldauerdienst" (Episode: "Fragen der Ehre", 2007) and "Großstadtrevier" (Episode: "Vertauscht", 2011), and had memorable turns on the big screen in "Wir" ("We", 2003), "Nichts als Gespenster" ("Nothing But Ghosts", 2007), "Whisky mit Wodka" ("Whisky With Wodka", 2009) and "Fernes Land" (2011). Karin Plachetka went on to play one of the leads in "Zwei Mütter" ("Two Mothers", 2013), a drama about a lesbian couple wanting to conceive a child by artificial insemination.