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Anna Winger

Anna Winger
Winger in 2016
Born
Anna LeVine

1970 (age 54–55)
Massachusetts
EducationColumbia University
Occupation(s)Writer
Producer
Screenwriter
Photographer
SpouseJoerg Winger

Anna Winger (née LeVine; born 1970) is an American writer, producer, screenwriter, and photographer who lives in Berlin, Germany. She is creator of the television dramas Deutschland 83, Deutschland 86, Deutschland 89, and Unorthodox. She is a co-writer of the limited series Transatlantic, produced for Netflix and aired in 2023.

Early life and education

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Winger grew up in Massachusetts. Her parents are anthropologists, and their work took their family to live in Kenya and Mexico for extended periods. She is Jewish.[1]

She graduated from Columbia University in 1993.[2][3]

Career

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Before she started writing, Winger worked as a professional photographer for more than a decade.[4]

Winger's first novel, This Must Be the Place, was published in 2008 by Riverhead Books.[5]

Her personal essays have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Condé Nast Traveler, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and Süddeutsche Zeitung. Winger's radio series for NPR Worldwide, Berlin Stories, ran from 2009 to 2013.

Her first project as a screenwriter was Deutschland 83, a television drama which she co-created with her husband Joerg Winger. The series aired on Sundance TV (USA) in June 2015 and on RTL (Germany) in November and December 2015. The 8-episode series, about a young East German spy on an undercover mission to West Germany in 1983, had its world premiere when the first two episodes were shown at the 2015 Berlin Film Festival. Winger wrote the series in English, but it was shot in German.[6] It is the first German-language series to be shown on American television.[7]

In 2016, she founded her own Berlin-based production company, Studio Airlift.[8] She also co-created and co-produced 2018 Amazon Prime and Sundance TV miniseries Deutschland 86, which is the follow-up season to Deutschland 83.[6] The third installment, Deutschland 89, was broadcast in 2021.[9][10]

Winger and Alexa Karolinski served as co-creators and co-writers of the miniseries Unorthodox, which debuted on March 26, 2020 and is Netflix's first ever show in Yiddish.[11] She signed an overall deal with Netflix in 2021.[12]

Personal life

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Winger met her husband in Chile.[1] Before 2002, Winger lived in New York, and her husband Joerg Winger lived in Cologne, Germany. In 2002, they moved together to Berlin, Germany.[5] They have two daughters.[1]

She speaks English, Spanish, and German, but always writes in English.[13]

Filmography

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Year Title Creator Writer Producer Notes
2012-2015 Leipzig Homicide Yes Writer for 4 episodes of German television series
2015 Deutschland 83 Yes Yes Creator and writer of German-American RTL and Sundance TV miniseries
2016 Berlin Station Yes Consulting producer for 2 episodes of American drama series
2018 Deutschland 86 Yes Yes Creator and writer of second installment of German-American Amazon Prime and Sundance TV miniseries
2020 Unorthodox Yes Yes Creator and writer of German-American Netflix miniseries
2020 Deutschland 89 Yes Yes Yes Creator and writer of third installment of German-American Amazon Prime miniseries[9]
2023 Transatlantic Yes Yes Yes

References

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  1. ^ a b c Foster, Nick (March 4, 2010). "Berlin surprises people". Financial Times. Archived from the original on April 7, 2018. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  2. ^ "A Brief Conversation with Anna Winger". World Literature Today. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
  3. ^ Mahesh, Nina (April 8, 2020). "Undergraduate Film Alumna Anna Winger '93 Releases 'Unorthodox' to Great Acclaim". Columbia University School of the Arts. Archived from the original on August 14, 2020.
  4. ^ Roberts, Andrew (June 9, 2019). "The writer behind Cold War spy series Deutschland '83 on why it's important never to forget your history". TheJournal.ie. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  5. ^ a b Schillinger, Liesl (August 14, 2008). "Anna Winger's 'This Must Be The Place'". New York Times. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
  6. ^ a b Weisbrod, Lars (October 25, 2018). "Why Deutschland 86 Isn't a 'Black-and-White' Cold War Spy Story". Vulture. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  7. ^ "Anna Winger: Giving A Voice To The Berlin Experience". NPR.org. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  8. ^ "Going Behind the Scenes of "Unorthodox" with Co-Creator and Exec Producer Anna Winger". womenandhollywood.com. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  9. ^ a b Jeffries, Stuart (March 5, 2021). "Deutschland 89 review – the end of history? Not quite". The Guardian. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
  10. ^ Hazelton, John (March 26, 2020). "'Deutschland 83' co-creator Anna Winger on her new Netflix series 'Unorthodox'". ScreenDaily. Archived from the original on January 16, 2021.
  11. ^ Meza, Ed (April 1, 2020). "Producer Anna Winger on Making a Diaspora Project With 'Unorthodox'". Variety. Archived from the original on April 1, 2020.
  12. ^ Rahman, Abid (September 13, 2021). "'Unorthodox' Creator Anna Winger Signs Overall Deal at Netflix". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved September 14, 2021.
  13. ^ Bramesco, Charles (March 26, 2020). "Unorthodox: behind the Deutschland 83 co-creator's new Netflix series". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
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