Sophie Linnenbaum was born in Nürnberg and trained at the Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf, completing both a Bachelor and Master of Arts in Film Directing between 2013 and 2022, with a prior degree in Psychology from the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. Her short films developed a strong international profile from early in her career: Pix (2017) won the Lola for Best German Short Film and Best Short Film at the Filmkunstfest Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and Rien ne va plus (2017) was selected for Next Generation Short Tiger. The short Das Mensch received the Human Value Award at the International Short Film Festival Drama in 2019.

She came to wider attention as a director of several episodes of the acclaimed ZDFneo series Druck across Seasons 5 and 8, and the ZDFneo series Deutscher (2020). Her debut feature The Ordinaries (2022, Bandenfilm) premiered at Filmfest München, where it won the Förderpreis Neues Deutsches Kino and the Best Directing Award, and went on to win the First Steps Award and the Festival des deutschen Kinos Best Feature Film Award, as well as having its international premiere at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. She received the Bayerischer Filmpreis Newcomer Directing Award in 2023.

Her documentary Väter Unser (2021) received the FFF Förderpreis Dokumentarfilm at DOK.Fest München and the Horizonte Filmpreis at Fünfseen Filmfest. Sophie is currently in production on an untitled streamer series (2026). She is based in Berlin.