Helke Misselwitz was born on July 18th 1947 in Planitz/Zwickau. After graduating from high school, she held apprenticeships as a carpenter and a physiotherapist, then worked for nine years as an assistant director and director with East German television. From 1978 to 1982, she studied directing at the Academy for Film and Television in Potsdam-Babelsberg. Misselwitz's request to enter the DEFA Studio for Feature Films was refused, so she took other jobs while working as a freelance artist making short essayistic pieces for the DEFA Studio for Documentary Films. In 1985, director Heiner Carow accepted her as a master student at the East German Academy of the Arts. From 1988 to 1999, Misselwitz was employed as a director at the DEFA studio. She directed her first feature film, Herzsprung, in 1992, followed by Little Angel in 1996. She is professor of directing at the Academy of Film and Television in Potsdam-Babelsberg and a member of the Academy of the Arts.