Kerstin Ahlrichs was born in 1966. She graduated in cultural sciences in Hildesheim, and in 1995, she enrolled at the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie (dffb) in Berlin. While she studied direction and cinematography, she also worked as a DJ and as an assistant DoP on several productions, including Rudolf Thome's "Just Married" (1998) and "Tigerstreifenbaby wartet auf Tarzan" (1998). Her student short "Kehrwoche", starring Karin Baal, won an award at the Emden Film Festival.

Ahlrichs graduated with her feature length debut "Sieh zu, dass du Land gewinnst" (2006), which depicts the female friendship between a young German government official and an illegal immigrant from Bosnia, and subsequently garnered Ahlrichs a nomination at the Grimme Award. In 2007/2008, she directed several segments for the TV show "Aktenzeichen XY ... ungelöst".

In 2011, Kerstin Ahlrichs and DoP Sofie Beichter co-founded the Munich-based production company "Filmlöwen". From 2014 on, she helmed numerous episodes of the long-running TV series "Lindenstraße" while also working on her second feature: "Taxi", an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Karen Duve, was released theatrically in August 2015.