Christopher Schier was born in Urbana, Illinois, USA, and holds Austrian nationality. He has built a prominent career in Austrian and German television, working across crime drama, satire, and prestige fiction. He began his career directing Austrian television comedy – including multiple seasons of the ORF polit satire cult series Wir sind Kaiser and the crimes series CopStories. His credits include Dead End (Real Film/ZDFneo, 2018, 6 episodes, also co-writer), multiple Tatort films (ORF and BR) and the drama series Trakehnerblut (SamFilm/ARD, Servus TV, 4 episodes).

Christopher received the Grimme-Preis in 2022 for the Sky Deutschland mini-series Die Ibiza-Affäre (W&B Television/epo-film, 2021), based on investigative reporting by the news magazines Süddeutsche Zeitung and Der Spiegel, also known as ‘Ibizagate’, this was a political scandal in Austria which led to the collapse of the governing coalition in May 2019.

Christopher Schier also directed the final season of the acclaimed Sky series Der Pass (W&B Television/epo-film, 2022), the Amazon comedy series Drunter & Drüber (Rundfilm, 2024), which received a Romy nomination for Best Series in 2025, and the historical mini-series Sternstunde der Mörder (Zeitgeist Filmproduktion/epo-film/Beta Film, ARD Degeto/Canal+ Austria/Servus TV, 2025), which won the Deutscher Fernsehkrimipreis for Best Crime Series in 2026.

Christopher Schier lives in Vienna.