Hanno Olderdissen was born in Bielefeld in 1976, and worked in non-film-related jobs after graduating from high school, as show jumper and psychiatric nurse. He then studied film and theater as well as sociology at Freie Universität Berlin. He gained first-hand experience in film on the sets of various cinematic and commercial film productions, working as grip assistant (e.g. in "Anatomie 2" ["Anatomy 2"], 2003), set director (e.g. in "Im Schwitzkasten" ["No Sweat"], 2005) and assistant director (e.g. in Romuald Karmakar's documentary "Between the Devil and the Wide Blue Sea", 2005). During this time, he also began making short films.

From 2004 to 2007, Hanno Olderdissen studied directing at Internationale Filmschule (ifs) in Cologne. His 20-minute thesis film "Robin" (2008) was awarded the First Steps Award and the Studio Hamburg Nachwuchspreis. He teamed up with fellow student Markus Sehr to start the production company "gentlemen's agreement" which served to produce commercials and to start viral campaigns; in 2013 they seized cooperating.

The made-for-TV film "Familie verpflichtet" ("Family Commitments"), Olderdissen's first feature, aired in 2015. The comedy about the family troubles of a gay Jewish-Arab couple had a cinematic premiere at Hamburg Filmfest and also screened at the Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis 2016.

In the fall of 2017, Olderdissen's second feature opened in German cinemas: "Rock My Heart" is a story about a teenage cardiac girl who develops a new perspective on life through her friendship with a wild horse and by competing at a horse show. Olderdissen went on the make the children's and adolescents' film "Wendy 2 – Freundschaft in Gefahr" (2018), also about the friendship between a girl and her horse.

After the success of this film with the public, Oderdissen remained true to the children's and youth film sector and directed "Lassie - Eine abenteuerliche Reise" ("Lassie Come Home", 2020) and the sequel "Lassie - Ein neues Abenteuer" ("Lassie - A New Adventure", 2023), two new film adaptations of the adventures of the longhaired collie known from the American classic series "Lassie" (1954-1973) and his human friends.