
Kirsten Ittershagen was born and raised in Hamburg, Germany. After graduating her studies of Sociology, Cultural Studies, Politics and Psychology at the University of Hamburg, she began working in advertising and brand management but dreamed of a career in the TV Industry.
In 2005 she decided to make the leap of faith. Kirsten Ittershagen moved to Berlin and started her career as a staff writer at UFA Serial Drama. Before long she found herself in 2009 as the head writer of the popular, long-running TV series UNTER UNS(Among Us), GUTE ZEITEN, SCHLECHTE ZEITEN (Good Times, Bad Times) and in 2013 as the writer-producer of VERBOTENE LIEBE (Forbidden Love).
As a passionate traveler, Kirsten Ittershagen works also internationally and with different cultures. For Fremantle, she worked in Croatia in 2011 on the show RUZA VJETROVA (Rose of the Wind) for Croation broadcaster RTL, heading up their international writers room. And in 2013 she also developed a TV series called THE MALL for the same London based company, set in Dubai and marketed to air in the Middle East. In 2018 she worked a supervising writer for the Hungarian TV series BARÁTOK KOTZ (Between Friends) produced by UFA Serial Drama, developing season story arcs and characters with the English-speaking writer’s room of international writers.
Following her international success she became the first German writer-producer invited to join the faculty at Serial Eyes Program, the European postgraduate high-level TV series writing and producing program in Berlin since 2013, where she mentors up and coming European writers and producers in of TV series. In 2019 she also worked as an Instructor for UFA’s Writing Fellowship, teaching “Serialized Storytelling” in theory and practice.
Over the past ten years Kirsten Ittershagen has also created original TV series ideas. In 2014 her passion project ALIBI AGENTUR (Alibi Agency) got a commission for the ZDFneo TV Lab in Germany. She wrote the script and produced the pilot alongside the company UFA Serial Drama, which aired in August 2014 on ZDFneo.
In 2016 Kirsten Ittershagen won the Exposé Funding of the VDD and ProsiebenSAT1 in Germany for her original story idea TINDARELLA, which she developed 2018 into a dramedy TV series. And in 2017 she got a funding from the German Hessen Film fund to write her first feature script MY DAD, ELVIS, which was considered for the German Film Award for Best Screenplay – Unproduced 2019.
Since 2018 Kirsten Ittershagen has also been working as a writer and development writer for TV series and movies for the German companies: UFA, Constantin TV, MadeFor as part of Endemol Shine and Studio Hamburg Serienwerft.
Kirsten Ittershagen created the international TV series Nina & Tom, the adaption of the acclaimed novel from the scandal journalist and author Tom Kummer, with Holger Reibiger, producer of DAS BOOT to pitch it to international networks and streaming services.
The high-end near sci-fi drama TV series LOVE HAS WON, which she created is optioned by C21 Studio in London to develop it for the US market.
Kirsten Ittershagen lives in Berlin and Los Angeles, where her agent Roy Ashton from The Gersh Agency shops the adaption of her original TV series THE ALIBY AGENCY and TINDARELLA across Hollywood.