Jan Georg Schütte was born in Oldenburg on 6th December 1962. From 1984 until 1988 he studied acting in Hamburg and New York, and subsequently became an ensemble member at the Schauspiel Köln and the Thalia Theater in Hamburg. Since 2000, he has been freelancing as actor, author and director. Along with his stage career, he began performing regularly in TV productions from the late 1990s on. He guest-starred in TV series like "Die Wache", "Doppelter Einsatz" and "Tatort", and also appeared in made-for-TV films like "Herzversagen" (2012). His screen work includes a role in the episodic feature film comedy "Weltverbesserungsmaßnahmen" (2005).

In 2006, Schütte made his debut as film director with the frivolous satire "Swinger Club", which premiered at the Max-Ophüls-Preis film festival and went on to win the Special Prize of the Jury at the Festival des "Deutschen Films" in Ludwigshafen.

Two years later he made the experimental feature film "Die Glücklichen" (2008), in which nearly all scenes were improvised by the actors over the course of one weekend. The film was named Best Picture at the Filmfest Schleswig-Holstein. Again taking an improvisational approach, Schütte made the mini-series "Koffie to Go" (2010) which revolves around a small café in Bremen.

In the Spring of 2011, Schütte directed "Leg ihn um – Ein Familienfest", in which a dying industry tycoon plans to hand his company down to the one among his children who musters up the courage to murder him. The dark comedy premiered at the 2012 Hofer Filmtage and was released in March 2013.