Kirsten Ittershagen
Screenwriting
Kirsten Ittershagen was born and raised in Hamburg and is now based in Berlin, which she considers home alongside the many places she has lived and worked internationally. Over the past decade, she has spent extended periods in Los Angeles and Portugal, while continuing to travel regularly for her work. This includes her role as a tutor for the TFL Series Lab as well as a range of international storytelling projects.
Kirsten began working with Catalyst in her first year and approaches the role with enthusiasm. At Catalyst, she leads a workshop in Conscious Storytelling, sharing her perspective and experience with students through a focused, practice-led format.
Her professional background spans more than 20 years in the German and international television industry. She is a German writer-producer with a degree in sociology and has worked extensively as a screenwriter, head writer and writer-producer on some of Germany’s most successful TV series. Alongside her work in Germany, Kirsten has collaborated with international production companies and lived and worked in Los Angeles for five years.
Kirsten has developed TV series and TV movies for German production companies including UFA, Serienwerft, ndF, Construction, Constantin, Nordpolaris and MadeFor Film. In 2014, her original TV series Alibi Agentur aired on ZDFneo. In 2018, her screenplay for the feature film Mein Vater. Elvis received funding from Hessenfilm and was considered for the nomination for the German Film Award - unproduced.
Alongside her writing and production work, Kirsten is deeply committed to supporting emerging international talent. Since 2013, she has worked as a lecturer in serial storytelling for the Serial Eyes programme at the dffb in Berlin. Since 2023, she has also been a tutor for the TFL Series Lab at TorinoFilmLab in Italy. With a strong interest in innovation, she continues to explore and redefine storytelling practices on both a national and international level.
In 2024, she developed the Conscious Storytelling Method and Movement. This approach is designed to inspire and advise writers and producers to help transform global narratives toward greater unity, love and compassion through the stories they create.
Kirsten's motivation for working at Catalyst is closely aligned with this mission. She values the opportunity to work with emerging storytellers, to share her experience and to teach Conscious Storytelling as a way of helping students discover and develop their authentic creative voice. Central to this work is offering practical tools for creating stories that have the power to touch audiences and influence perspectives.
Her understanding of storytelling is rooted in her early professional experience in the soap opera industry, which she describes as a formative training ground for learning the craft of serialised storytelling. It was here that Kirsten learned how deeply stories matter to audiences and how powerful the role of the storyteller can be. This awareness has shaped her ongoing emphasis on responsibility and conscious storytelling practices.
At this stage in her life and career, she finds the greatest sense of satisfaction in the belief that storytelling holds the power to change both individuals and society. For her, storytelling is not only a creative practice but a way to contribute to a better world, one story at a time.