Tamara Staudt apprenticed as a carpenter in Tuebingen and spent her journeyman years in Zurich and at the Landestheater in Tuebingen. She completed her master craftsman exam in Stuttgart. In 1988, she was accepted at the DFFB film school in Berlin where she studied directing. During her studies she worked as a camera assistant for the ZDF and took screenwriting seminars with Wim Wenders, Mark Imhoff and Syd Field.

Her feature film directorial debut in 1991, ...Bis Montagmorgen, was followed by several short films and documentaries. In 2000, she shot the feature film Svetlana, a drama which follows a 16-year-old’s path to self-discovery.