Katja Meier (photo by Annie Ojile)
Katja Meier
Born in Switzerland in 1972, Katja earned a degree in performing arts in Zurich and worked for a few years as an actor in the German-speaking countries. In her mid-twenties, she traded Shakespeare and Goethe for a backpack and never looked back.
Living in Italy since 1999, Katja has worked as an olive picker, wedding planner, and life coach before running a refugee home in a small Tuscan hilltop town. Her memoir ‘Across the Big Blue Sea: Good Intentions and Hard Lessons in an Italian Refugee Home’ has been optioned for a film and was a Guardian Best Summer Book.
In 2022, Katja founded Zenkafilms.com. She’s the creator and writer of $HARE (working title Doing Good), a TV series set in the Swiss Alps. Katja’s pilot screenplay for the $HARE pilot won the The Writers Lab Europe & UK. Press release ScreenDaily.
For updates from Zenka Films and Katja’s journey as an entrepreneur, read Startup with 50 on Substack.
Katja is the mother of two teenagers and together with her family divides her time between an olive grove and a national park beach in Tuscany, and a winter campsite in the Swiss Alps.
Follow Katja on Instagram, connect on LinkedIn, read behind the scenes from the startup and film worlds on her Substack, or check out her hashtags on IG (#alpenglow, #fourseasonsatficari).
For speaking engagements and book club discussions get in touch here.