Axel Groß is an art director specialized in computer imaging. 

He was born 1972 as Karcher in Munich, and is married to costume designer Grit Groß with two daughters. During his childhood he moved often, due to frequent redeployments of his father working with the German armed forces. The longest time Axel and his two sisters grew up in Lower Saxony, where he graduated high school and worked for the German Red Cross.

Subsequently he was trained in architecture at the University of Hanover and TU Delft, learning traditional skills and freelancing for architectural firms. During the time he became drawn to photorealistic computer generated imaging, which served as the source of income during his studies. With lighting being arguably the most advanced subject to simulate, he pivoted to work for the architectural lighting design industry in order to further specialize in rendering and learn more about designing with light.