Çağla Menderes was born in 1965 in Ankara, Turkey. She got her bachelor degree in archeology. She worked at Economic Bulletin weekly newspaper in Istanbul before she moved to New York in 1990. She studied writing, producing, directing and editing for documentary at the New School of New York and School of Visual Arts.

She worked as a New York correspondent of Channel 6 in Turkey in the 90's. Later she worked as a Program Coordinator at Global Village Productions producing the "Beckett Project". She was the Assistant Editor in "Guerillas in our Midst" directed by Amy Harrison and Assistant Producer at "Fortune Cookies" directed by Christian Choy.

In 2000 she moved to Athens, Greece. She wrote articles for Milliyet Sanat and Vatan newspaper. Most recently she produced the 13 episode documentary series on contemporary Turkey titled "Orient Express" broadcasted on Greek National Television in 2011.