Paula Beer, born in February 1995 in Mainz, had her first experiences in acting and dancing as a member of the youth ensemble of the Friedrichstadtpalast in Berlin. In 2009, she auditioned for the lead role in Chris Kraus's drama "Poll" – and was chosen for the part out of over 2.500 applicants. The role of Oda in "Poll", which was released in Germany in early 2011, marked her screen debut.

Before the film opened in theaters in January 2011, this role had already garnered Paula Beer the Bavarian Film Award as Best New Actress. In the costume drama "Ludwig II." (2012), directed by Marie Noëlle and Peter Sehr, she played a central supporting role as the Bavarian duchess Sophie; in Vivian Naefe's family drama "Der Geschmack von Apfelkernen" ("The Taste of Apple Seeds", 2013) she featured in a key role as a young woman whose mysterious accidental death causes traumatic repercussions even years later.

The period picture "Das finstere Tal" ("The Dark Valley", 2014) featured another pivotal role for Beer: For playing the daughter of a mountain farmer's widow who accommodates a mysterious stranger, she was nominated Best Actress at the Österreichischer Filmpreis.

In Volker Schlöndorff's highly anticipated drama "Diplomatie" (DE/FR) which premiered at the Berlin IFF in 2014 and starred André Dussollier and Niels Arestrup, Beer played a minor role which was later edited out, however. Instead, in 2015, she starred as the female lead in "Pampa Blues" (TV) and, later the same year, she was cast to play anther lead in "Vier Könige", a drama about four teenagers from dysfunctional families who have to spend Christmas in a psychiatric ward for juveniles.

in 2016, Paula Beer won the Marcello-Mastroianni-Award for Best Young Performer at the International Film Festival of Venice for her role in François Ozons Post-World-War-I-Drama "Frantz", in which she plays a young German woman fascinated by a mysterious Frenchman.

Her next projects were Sherry Hormans TV-thriller "Tödliche Geheimnisse" (2017) and Florian Henckel von Donnersmarcks drama "Werk ohne Autor" ("Never Look Away"), released in 2018 and nominated for the Oscars.

In 2018 she starred alongside Franz Rogowski in Christian Petzold's "Transit" based on the novel by Anna Seghers. For her performance in the role of an unscrupulous investment banker in the TV series "Bad Banks", also 2018, she won the German Actor Award and was nominated for the Hessian Film Award and the German Television Award, among others.    

In 2019 she was part of the ensemble of the French submarine adventure film "Le chant du loup" ("The Wolf's Call - Decision in the Deep") before she appeared in the second season of "Bad Banks" in early 2020. In the competition of the Berlinale 2020, Beer starred in the title role of "Undine", Christian Petzold's modern interpretation of the Undine myth. As earlier in "Transit", Beer again was playing alongside Franz Rogowski in this film. For her impressive portrayal of the character between fairytale and modern world she was awarded the Silver Bear. That same year, she won the European Film Award for the role.   

Beer and Petzold's next collaboration, the relationship and friendship drama "Roter Himmel" ("Afire"), premiered in competition at the 2023 Berlinale. Beer also played the title role in Kilian Riedhof's "Stella - Ein Leben" ("Last Song for Stella"), a historical drama about Stella Goldschlag (1922-1994), a German Jew who worked as an informer for the Gestapo during World War II.