Born in Dortmund, Yasemin Şamdereli celebrated her breakthrough this year with her first cinema release, the comedy “Almanya—willkommen in Deutschland” (Almanya—Welcome to Germany)

The story behind the award-winning film is based on the director's own grandparents, who emigrated to Germany in the wake of the German-Turkish recruitment agreement of October 31, 1961. Yasemin Şamdereli and her two siblings were born in Dortmund, making them part of the third-generation of Turkish immigrants. She finished high school in Dortmund and then studied at the University of Television and Film in Munich.

In 1993, she started working as a film assistant, and began writing and directing for national and international productions. Her projects often address Turkish-German relations in a humorous way. The director has often received support from her sister Nesrin, who is a trained script writer. In 2002, Yasemin Şamdereli filmed a romantic comedy called "Alles getürkt!" Her film "Ich Chef, du nix" was released in 2007. She also collaborated on the script for the award-winning television comedy series "Türkisch für Anfänger", which premiered in 2006. For the past five years, Yasemin Şamdereli has been living in Berlin.