Katharina Thoma first studied piano at the Musikhochschule Lübeck before turning to opera directing. As an assistant director at the Staatstheater Kassel and the Frankfurt Opera, she worked with directors such as Richard Jones, Keith Warner and Christof Loy. In 2007 she won the 2nd prize at the European Opera Directing Competition "Camerata Nuova", followed by her debut at the Malmö Opera (Vanessa by Samuel Barber). Since 2008 she has been working as a freelance director and has staged at major European opera houses such as the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, London, at the Opéra du Rhin, Strasbourg as well as in Stockholm (Royal Swedish Opera as well as Folkopera) and Gothenburg. She has also directed at renowned festivals such as Glyndebourne and the Munich Biennale. In Germany, she has staged productions at the Frankfurt Opera, the Kassel State Theater, the Baden State Theater in Karlsruhe, and the Mecklenburg State Theater in Schwerin, among others. From 2011 to 2014 she was in-house director at the Dortmund Opera, where she was able to develop a broad repertoire with works ranging from Cavalli and Handel to Verdi, Puccini, Bizet, and Mussorgsky. In the 2019/20 season, she will present her first productions of Wagner operas. Another focus of her work is the scenic training of young singers. For example, she has been a lecturer at the Musikhochschule Mainz and held a guest professorship at the Kunstuniversität Graz in 2018.

Since the winter semester 2019/20, she has been a professor at the HfM Würzburg and heads the opera school there.