Karine Bach was born in the suburbs of Lyon, France, into a wealthy family. Her father was German and her mother was Moroccan. She spent her childhood in the Lyon countryside and completed her studies in communications.
She stated that she had her first sexual experience at the age of 17, just before embarking on her university course, and that she worked weekends at a nightclub to pay for her studies. At the nightclub, she met Franck Ceronne, a disc jockey, whom she married. The couple divorced in 1997
In 1996, to escape their crippling debts, at Franck's suggestion, the couple began working as a couple in pornographic films.[6] In the film L'Indécente aux enfer (1997) she for the first time performed unsimulated sex scenes with other partners. The couple divorced shortly after. Following their divorce, Franck quit the pornographic film industry but Karen continued to appear in pornographic films both in Europe and the United States. Lancaume's debut in the United States was in Private Gold 25 - When the Night Falls.
She later worked with European porn film directors, including Mario Salieri, Alain Payet and Luca Damiano, whose films highlighted oral and anal sex, double penetrations, lesbianism and orgies.
Her appearances alternated between the two continents, working with producers Elegant Angel, Wicked Pictures and Sin City, and directors Marc Dorcel, Mario Salieri, Andrew Blake, Alain Payet, Alessandro Del Mar, and Luca Damiano.
She appeared in Exhibitions 1999 (John B. Root, 1998), a pornographic film shot as a documentary on the porn scene, which combined interviews with the protagonists. Lancaume came to feel distaste for her work, saying in an interview: "I was covered in spunk, wet, freezing to death and no one even offered me a towel. When the scene ends, you are worthless."
