Ade lives in Berlin, teaching screenwriting at the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg.

Together with Janine Jackowski and Jonas Dornbach, she runs the production company Komplizen Film.

In 2012, Ade announced she would be writing and directing a film called Toni Erdmann about a man who begins to play pranks on his adult daughter after he finds she has become too serious.

[5] Ade lives with director Ulrich Köhler [de] and their two children in Berlin.

[2][6] In December 2023, alongside 50 other filmmakers, Ade signed an open letter published in Libération demanding a ceasefire and an end to the killing of civilians amid the 2023 Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, and for a humanitarian corridor into Gaza to be established for humanitarian aid, and the release of hostages.