Born in 1962 in Dornach. After studying German and Romance Languages at the University of Basel, Stella Händler worked as an assistant director for different theatre companies. Later she was employed as directing and production assistant at SAMSA-Film, Luxemburg and completed various training courses, incl. courses at the SfG Berne and Focal. For several years she was the co-director of the Basel International Theatre Festival and the Film- and Videotage Region Basel. In 1990 Stella Händler led the production collective Video&Film 62 and worked as a freelance production manager for documentaries and short fiction films.
In 2000 Stella Händler founded Freihändler Film Production Ltd. alongside Claudia Frei, as a producer and managing director.
In the same year, Stella Händler also co-founded tweaklab – tools for media and art Ltd. Up until 2006 she was on the board of the Stadtkino Basel, until 2013 a board member of Balimage Verein für Film und Medienkunst und until 2017 a member of the Aargau Kuratorium, Faculty of Visual Arts and Film (Chairwoman).
In 2016, Stella Händler was a jury member for the international competition at the Oberhausen Short Film Festival. Since 2008, Stella Händler has been supervising the degree films in the area of video studies at the Lucerne School of Art and Design.