Born in Antalya in 1991, she came to Germany for the first time in 2003, where she attended school in Bavaria until 2008. In 2009, she began studying German language and literature at Hacettepe University in Ankara. In 2013, she returned to Germany with the TEV-DAAD scholarship for the Master's programme in German Literature at the University of Hamburg.
From 2020 to 2023 she was dramaturgy assistant at Thalia Theatre Hamburg. Since the 2021/22 season, she has also been co-curator of the transcultural festival Nachbarşchaften - Komşuluklar, which deals with post-migrant society and brings together various artistic positions that show how people live together in Germany as a country of immigration. At the Thalia Theatre, she has worked with Robert Wilson, Antú Romero Nunes, Elsa-Sophie Jach and İdil Üner, among others. In the 2022/23 season, she was a juror at the Heidelberg Stückemarkt for the first time.
Elvin İlhan has been a dramaturge at Schauspiel Hannover since the 2023/24 season. Her aim is to shape the repertoire with transcultural and political themes.