Stella Kadmon was born in Vienna October 15, 1902. She studied acting from 1920-23 at the Vienna Academy of Music at the Volksoper. Her acting career began at the Landestheater in Linz. In 1924-25 she appeared with the German Theater of Maarisch-Ostrau (Ostrava), in Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic). Later she studied acting and directing with Armin Seydelmann and Max Reinhardt. In 1926-31 she performed as cabaret singer in Munich, Vienna, Berlin and Koeln. She was co-founder, with Peter Hammerschlag and Gerhart Hermann Mostar, of the political, critical cabaret Der liebe Augustin, in Vienna, in 1931.
Following the take-over of Austria by Germany in 1938, the Nazi regime closed down the cabaret. Later in the year, with the aid of the German Ambassador, Stella Kadmon fled to Belgrade, Yugoslavia, where she stayed with relatives. She immigrated to Palestine in 1939. She was director of the English-language Cabaret Papillion in Tel-Aviv from 1940-42. In the following years Kadmon, with Arnold Chempin and Karl Guttmann, organized evenings of chansons and dramatic readings. Due to a ban under the British mandate, public performances of German authors was interdicted. They were compelled, consequently, to perform in private clubs. Their productions included Franz Werfel’s Jacobowsky und der Oberst and Bertolt Brecht’s Frucht und Elend des Dritten Reiches. Kadmon was also active in cultural programs of the Free Austrian Movement in Palestine.
In 1947 Kadmon returned to Vienna. She became director of Der liebe Augustin, which had reopened in 1945. In 1948 the cabaret changed to theatre performances. It took the name Theater der Courage, in which avant-garde plays were performed. Stella Kadmon staged numerous Austrian and world premieres of plays by Wolfgang Borchert, George Roland, Adolf Schutz, Ferdinand Bruckner, Jean Anouilh and others.
Kadmon was awarded the Honorary Silver Medal of the City of Vienna, in 1968, and the title of Professor in 1977. She also received many prizes for her work in staging. She died in Vienna in 1980.