Jette Steckel, born in Berlin in 1982, studied theatre directing at the Theatre Academy Hamburg from 2003 to 2007 and as a guest student at the Russian Theatre Academy GITIS in Moscow. At the Thalia Theater in Gauß, she directed Darja Stocker's Nachtblind (Night Blindness) in 2006, which was invited to the Heidelberg Play Market, and Edward Bond's Gerettet (Rescued), for which Steckel was awarded the Eysoldt Prize for young directors and invited to the Radikal jung festival. In 2007, she was voted Young Director of the Year by the magazine theater heute and in 2008 was nominated for the Austrian Nestroy Theatre Prize in the category Best Newcomer. In the 2010/11 season, Jette Steckel's production of Don Carlos premiered at the Thalia Theater, for which she received a scholarship from the Berenberg Bank Foundation and was awarded the 2011 Rolf Mares Prize in the category Outstanding Production.

She made her opera debut in Basel in 2013 with Giacomo Puccini's Tosca, and in 2015 she staged Weine nicht, singe at the Opera Stabile in Hamburg. In November 2015, Steckel was awarded the Faust Theatre Prize for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in the category of Best Director. In spring 2017, Jette Steckel brought the century-spanning epic by author Nino Haratischwili to the stage with Brilka – Das 8. Leben (Brilka – The 8th Life) and won the Rolf Mares Prize again. Jette Steckel was resident director at the Thalia Theatre under Joachim Lux and also directs in Berlin, Cologne and Vienna. In 2024, her production DIE VATERLOSEN (The Fatherless) was invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen and ranked among the ten most remarkable productions in the German-speaking world.

Current roles: