Marie Rosa Tietjen was born in Bremerhaven in 1986. Until 2010, she studied at the renowned "Ernst Busch" acting school in Berlin, and performed in several theatre productions in Zurich and Berlin. Since 2011, she is an ensemble player at the Schauspiel in Cologne.

After appearing in several shorts, Tietjen made her feature film debut in the 2010 production "Die Unsichtbare" ("Cracks in the Shell"). The following year, she had a memorable supporting role in Andreas Dresen's acclaimed drama "Halt auf freier Strecke" ("Stopped on Track"), playing the sister-in-law of a man dying of cancer.

In 2010, Tietjen was cast in a leading role in Lola Randl's "Die Erfindung der Liebe" ("The Invention of Love"), a production which was previously halted due to the death of original star Maria Kwiatkowsky. Instead of re-shooting the existing scenes,  Marie Rosa Tietjen was given a completely new part, and the story was changed in order to include Kwiatkowsky's performance as well.

"Die Erfindung der Liebe" premiered at the 2013 Munich Film Festival, which also saw the premiere of the tragicomedy "Stiller Sommer" ("Silent Summer"). The latter has Tietjen playing a young woman whose boyfriend starts an affair with her mother. Both films were released in Germany in spring 2014.