Lisa Gotto studied Theatre, Film and Television Studies as well as German and English Literature in Cologne, Bochum, and Warwick (UK). She received her M.A. from the University of Cologne in 2001 and completed her PhD at the Bauhaus University Weimar in 2006.

Between 2001 and 2007, she worked as a research and teaching assistant at the Bauhaus University Weimar and the University of Television and Film Munich. From 2007 to 2010, she served as Assistant Professor of Media Studies at the University of Mannheim and the University of Regensburg. From 2010 onward, she was Professor of Film History and Film Analysis at the ifs internationale filmschule köln, and between 2016 and 2018, she was Professor of Media and Game Studies at the Cologne Game Lab.

Following her time at CGL, she became a fellow at the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS) before joining the Institute of Theatre, Film and Media Studies at the University of Vienna, where she has since been working as Professor of Film Theory.

Together with Prof. Em. Dr. Gundolf S. Freyermuth, she co-founded and co-edited the book series Bild und Bit: Studies in Digital Media Culture. She also served as a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds (Bristol: Intellect Ltd.).

Her main research interests include the theory, history, and aesthetics of film, post-cinema, game studies, digital media culture, and comparative media studies.