Martin Zehetgruber completed his stage design studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz. In 1989 he founded the production group "My Friend Martin" together with Martin Kušej. This was followed by work at houses such as the Staatstheater Stuttgart, Thalia Theater Hamburg, Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, Volksbühne Berlin, Kammerspiele Munich, Residenztheater Munich and the Burgtheater in Vienna.

In the field of opera, he works at international houses such as the Opera Bastille Paris, Liceu in Barcelona, Opera La Monnaie in Brussels, De Nationale Opera Amsterdam, Zurich Opera House, Munich State Opera, Berlin State Opera, Salzburg Festival and the Madrid Opera House Teatro Real, among others Conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Mariss Jansons and Kent Nagano.

The most important working partners among the directors included and include Hans Kresnik, Stephan Kimmig, Jossi Wieler, Guy Joosten, Andrea Breth and Barbara Frey, as well as Martin Kusej – with whom he has had a close working relationship since the beginning. In 2001, Martin Zehetgruber was appointed professor in the department of stage design at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart and designed the theater tower for the Baden-Württemberg Academy for Performing Arts, which was newly founded in Ludwigsburg in 2008.

His works include Lady Macbeth von Myensk (Shostakovich, Teatro Real), La Traviata (Verdi, La Monnaie), Salome (Strauss, La Monnaie), La Forza del Destino (Verdi, Bavarian State Opera Munich), Don Giovanni (Mozart, Salzburger Festival), Macbeth (Verdi, National Opera & Ballet Amsterdam), Bluebeard's Castle (Bartók), Manon Lescaut (Puccini, National Opera & Ballet Amsterdam), Rusalka (Dvorak, Bavarian State Opera Munich), Médée (Cherubini, State Opera Unter den Linden Berlin) and Cavalleria Rusticana (Mascagni, Stuttgart).