Stephan Rick was born in Rosenheim in 1974. After training as an assistant DoP at the Bayerische Akademie für Fernsehen, he studied drama, film and art history at the Ruhr-Universität in Bochum. In 1998, he enrolled at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, and while studying there, he directed several award-winning shorts. His graduation project "Richtung Leben" (2005) garnered the Studio Hamburg Newcomer Award and the Producer's Award at the Sehsüchte Festival.

He developed the real-time TV show "Allein gegen die Zeit" ("13 Hours", 2010), and also wrote and directed some of the 26 episodes. The show was nominated for an Emmy Award and the German Television Award for Best Series, and it eventually won awards at the Kinder- und Jugendfilmfestival Goldener Spatz and the Munich Film Festival.

Rick, who also directed several episodes of the TV show "Die Pfefferkörner" ("The Peppercorns"), presented his feature film debut "Unter Nachbarn" ("The Good Neighbour") at the 2011 Shanghai Film Festival. In 2014, he wrote and directed the TV thriller "Eine mörderische Idee" for the popular "Polizeiruf 110" series, and also helmed two episodes of the crime drama "Der Kriminalist". Later that year, he began to work on his sophomore feature release "Die dunkle Seite des Mondes" ("The Dark Side of the Moon"). The film premiered at the 2015 Zurich Film Festival and opened in Germany in January 2016.