Oliver Jahn, born in Oldenburg in 1969, studied communication and information technology and then went to Berlin in 1995 to study at the department of "Visual Communication" at Universität der Künste. Two years later, Jahn changed to Deutsche Film-und Fernsehakademie Berlin (dffb) to study film directing.

During his years of study, Jahn already worked as a freelance editor for several TV stations und finished his own short film projects – including "Aus den Sterntagebüchern des Ijon Tichy I und II" (1999 and 2000; as co-director), freely adapted from Stanislaw Lem. From these early short films Jahn developed the ZDF series "Ijon Tichy: Raumpilot", that received a nomination for the 2008 Grimme award and won the promotional award at the 2007 German film awards.

In 2008, Oliver Jahn made his movie debut with his graduation film for dffb, the satirical comedy "Die Eisbombe".