Szewczenko was born to Vera Küke, an ethnic German immigrant from the Soviet Union, and a Ukrainian father who left the family when she was two years old.

[2] In 1993, at the age of 16, Szewczenko won her first international competition at the Nations Cup in Germany, defeating the reigning world champion Oksana Baiul.

[5] After finishing 6th at the 1996 Worlds, Szewczenko struggled for 18 months with a pair of viral infections which caused her to sleep 18 hours a day.

Beginning in 2002, she played the role of Katinka "Kati" Ritter on the German soap opera Unter uns.

She played the role of Diana Sommer, an inline courier, who trained as a figure skater alongside the wealthy daughter of a fitness center mogul.