Joya Thome, born in Berlin in 1990, started making her own short films and working on film sets as a teenager. While working as a director, assistant director and caster, she studied education and social sciences at Humboldt University in Berlin and at New York University. In 2016, she produced her crowdfunded feature film debut Queen of Niendorf. After successfully touring festivals and winning numerous prizes (including the German Director Award METROPOLIS, German Film Critics Association Award, ECFA Award), the film was launched in cinemas in Germany, France and several other European countries in 2018. Thome is currently working on her first cinema documentary Follow Me (working title).