David Kross was born in Bargteheide near Hamburg in 1990. As a young teen, he already appeared in small screen parts and continued to play school theatre. In 2005, director Detlev Buck's daughter Bernadette recommended him for the leading role in Buck's "Knallhart" ("Tough Enough") and Kross eventually got the part: For his performance as the 15-year old Berlin kid Michael Polischka, who has to relocate from the affluent district of Zehelndorf to the rough streets of Neukölln, Kross got rave reviews at the IFF Berlin.

Already in autumn 2006, shooting started on the fantasy film "Krabat", which director Marco Kreuzpaintner adapted from the eponymous novel by Otfried Preußler. David Kross was cast in the lead role and the film was released in late 2008 in Germany.

In February 2009, the US-German production "Der Vorleser" ("The Reader"), based on Bernhard Schlink's novel, opened in German cinemas. In the film, directed by Stephen Daldry, David Kross is seen alongside stars such as Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, and Bruno Ganz. Kross won several award for his role as the teenage lover of a former concentration camp guard, including the "Trophée Chopard" in Cannes as well as a nomination for the European Film Award.

In his next film, Kross again collaborated with director Detlev Buck: "Same Same But Different" is based on an autobiographic newspaper article by Benjamin Prüfer and tells the story of the love affair between a German backpacker and a young Cambodian woman who as it later turns out is HIV positive.

From 2009 until 2010, David Kross studied acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) before relocating to Berlin.

The success of "Der Vorleser" led to more roles in international productions for Kross: He had a supporting role in Steven Spielberg's WWI drama "War Horse" (2011) and played a German soldier in the Norwegian-Swedish feature film "Into the White" (2012).

After lead roles in "Das Blaue vom Himmel" ("Promising the Moon", 2011) and "Die Vermessung der Welt" ("Measuring the World", 2012), he starred opposite Johanna Wokalek in the comedy "Anleitung zum Unglücklichsein" ("The Situation is Hopeless, but Not Serious"). Kross appeared in the period dramas "Michael Kohlhaas" ("Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas", FR/DE 2013) and "Angélique" ("Angélique - Eine große Liebe in Gefahr", FR 2013) before playing a workaholic in the children's film "Rico, Oskar und die Tieferschatten" ("The Pasta Detectives", 2014). In 2015, Kross starred in the science-fiction thriller "Boy 7", playing a young amnesiac who discovers a far-reaching conspiracy.

Stephan Wagner cast him in his TV film "Die Akte General" (2015) as an informer for the German Federal Intelligence Service and colleague of the legendary prosecutor Fritz Bauer. In the sport drama "Race" (DE/FR/CA 2014-16) he played the German athlete Carl 'Luz' Long in a supporting role. David Kross appeared in a leading role as a mentally impaired young man who, together with his brother, sets out to find their father in Markus Goller's road movie "Simpel" ("My Brother Simple", 2017). Also in 2017, he was starring in the German-Irish culture-clash comedy “Halal Daddy” and played the main character in Marcus H. Rosenmüller's "Trautmann".

In the streaming tragicomedy "Betonrausch" ("Rising High", 2020), Kross had the leading role of a real estate fraudster.   

Then, in 2021, three films starring David Kross were released: "Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull" ("Confessions of Felix Krull", with Kross as Marquis De Venosta), the survival thriller "Prey" and "Leander Haußmanns Stasikomödie" ("A Stasi Comedy").