Polat was born on 11 July 1978 in Bramsche, a town in Osnabrück District, Germany, to a Turkish physician father and a German regional politician mother.

She finished her secondary education in Münster with Abitur and studied Economics at the Goethe University Frankfurt graduating with a thesis on "Employment Effects of Technological Change: A Micro-econometric Approach" in 2002.

[1][2] Polat ran in the 2003 regional election for Green Party; however, she missed the entry into the Landtag of Lower Saxony by one place on the electoral list.

When Rebecca Harms, the chairperson of the parliamentary group of the Green Party, moved into the European Parliament, Polat took her seat as replacement on 15 September 2004.

In addition to her committee assignments, Polat has been serving as deputy chairwoman of the German-Pacific Parliamentary Friendship Group, which maintains interparliamentary relations with Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste.