top of page
IMG-20190729-WA0043.jpg

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

​

bottom of page