Pia Hellenthal trained at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM), graduating with a diploma in Film and Television in 2013. Her debut feature documentary Searching Eva (Corsofilm/ZDF Das kleine Fernsehspiel, 2018) announced her as one of the most formally distinctive voices in German documentary filmmaking: it premiered in the Panorama section of the Berlinale in 2019, was shortlisted for the Teddy Award, and subsequently screened at CPH:DOX (Special Jury Mention), IDFA Amsterdam, Hot Docs Toronto, AFI Docs Los Angeles, Sarajevo Film Festival, and numerous further international festivals. The film received the 3Sat Dokumentarfilmpreis, nominations for the Preis der deutschen Filmkritik and the Deutscher Dokumentarfilmpreis, the ELBE DOX Best Film Award, the Audience Award at the Outview Film Festival Athens, and the Outstanding Achievement in a Debut Feature Film Award at Cinema Eye Honours 2020.

Her transition to fiction television came with the ARD Degeto series How to Tatort (btf GmbH/Radio Bremen, 2020), episodes of Wir (Season 3, ZDFneo, 2023), and the series Push (Season 2, Bantry Bay Productions/ZDF, 2025), which she co-directed with Joya Thomé. She was selected as a Berlinale Talent in 2022. Her most celebrated recent work is the SWR series 30 Tage Lust (Trima Film, 2024), co-directed with Bartosz Grudziecki, which received a nomination for Best Director at Series Mania International Competition in 2024 and the Deutscher Schauspielpreis in the Duo category in 2025. She is based in Germany and works fluently in German, English, and Spanish.

In 2022, Pia co-founded the production company Vicky Bane together with filmmaker Visar Morina. Their latest feature, Shame and Money (2026), received the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Alongside her work as a producer, Pia continues to develop her own feature and serial projects and works selectively for television. Her most recent credit is Tatort Köln (Bavaria Fiction, 2026)