Nadia Kailouli was born on 1 August 1983 in Wermelskirchen. The trained wholesale and foreign trade merchant gained her first presenting experience at Bayerischer Rundfunk and then went to Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Cologne. Nadia Kailouli later transferred to the Norddeutscher Rundfunk in Hamburg, where she works as an author and reporter. Since January 2024, Nadia Kailouli has been the new face of the investigative political magazine programme »Report Mainz« of the Südwestdeutscher Rundfunk.

In 2020, she was awarded the Grimme Preis together with Jonas Schreijäg for the documentary »SeaWatch3«. Most recently, she presented the ARD Mittagsmagazin. The journalist is also a professor at the University of Television and Film in Munich, where she teaches television journalism.