Annika was born and raised in former East - Germany. After her B.F.A. in Theater History and Directing at Bayreuth University in Germany, Annika received a Fulbright scholarship for Indiana University, Bloomington and then completed her education with a Masters in Film Directing at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia.   She started working as part of the crew in various positions from P.A. to the camera department on productions such as ‘Savannah’,  Don’t trust the B-‘ and ‘Chasing Life’ before becoming an actor herself.   She has been in 'Mob City', 'The Originals', 'Expendable Assets', ‘Hindsight’, ‘NCIS New Orleans’, ‘Jungle Cruise’ and ‘Counterpart’, among others.   Annika has written and directed several short films, music videos, documentary segments for German & Australian Television and had her own radio show in Germany for two years. Her last short film ‘Crossing Fences’ did a festival run in 2017/18 and won the audience awards at the ‘Short to the Point’ and the ‘Sonoma International Film Festival’, as well as the best drama award at the ‘Anthony Meindl Film Festival’. Her current feature screenplay 'Odium' won the Hollywood writers award at the 'Table read my screenplay' competition sponsored by the ISA and Nickelodeon.