Janna Maria Nandzik

Janna Maria Nandzik (born 1980 in Oldenburg) is a German screenwriter, director and producer. At the age of 28 she founded two film production companies. together with entertainer and actor Christian Ulmen and created and produced her first TV series. The walk-and-talk sitcom The Snobs (ZDFneo, 18 episodes) accompanied three bon vivants in despair during their 18-hole course of golf.

Nandzik’s directing debut followed in 2012 with German-French transmedia series About:Kate (Arte, 14 episodes), which explored the identity crises of a 30-year-old woman losing herself in the depth of digitalism. The interactive show won awards in Germany and Switzerland. After a stint as Creative Director for Tele5, a Munich-based television network, Nandzik returned to creating and writing in Berlin.

She has written for multiple series, including dark comedy Jerks (ProSieben) and teen drama Druck (ZDFneo/funk), as well as the historical drama The Empress which won the International Emmy for Best Drama Series in 2023.

She worked as a director for the TV movie Die Innenministerkonferenz (ZDF), a satirical murder mystery written by journalist and television host Jan Böhmermann and writer Carla Kaspari.

By October 2023, Nandzik started working on a six-part Berlin-set series with Stefan Titze (How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)) based on the novel Oval by Elvia Wilk. The drama revolves around the unexpected side effects of an empathy pill on the city.

In 2017 Janna Maria Nandzik founded the salon and club "The School of Death", a non-profit organization in Berlin that offers various workshops and lectures on the subject of death and dying. The project has set itself the task of making dealing with the end of life a part of everyday life.

Awards

 * 2013: Geneva International Film Festival, Youth Jury Award For Best Transmedia Work for About:Kate
 * 2014: Crossmedia Prize of the Bremische Landesmedienanstalt and Radio Bremen for About:Kate
 * 2019 Deutscher Comedypreis, Best Comedy Series for Jerks season 2
 * 2019 Deutscher Fernsehpreis, Best Comedy Series for Jerks season 2
 * 2023 International Emmy for best drama series for The Empress

Nominations

 * 2011 Grimme-Preis nomination in the category "Entertainment" for The Snobs
 * 2014: Grimme-Preis, nomination for Janna Nandzik for concept and realization of the interactive, multimedia project About:Kate in the category Fiction/Special.
 * 2019 Grimme-Preis nomination in the category "Children & Youth" for Druck