# Sara Schätzl

Sara-Maria Schätzl (born 12 December 1987) is a German columnist, author, actress, and businesswoman.

## Early life

Sara Schätzl grew up in the small Bavarian town Donauwörth. She attended the boarding school Gymnasium Schloss Gaienhofen until she received the Mittlere Reife diploma at the age of sixteen, then dropped out of school and moved to Munich to start a career in the entertainment industry inspired by her role model Peter Alexander. As her parents didn't support her financially she moved first into a social housing apartment in Munich but in spring 2010 she relocated to a house with garden in the quieter Eching, where she lived with several animals, including three dogs, a cat and a horse, which she rescued from a horse dealer.

## Poly Implant Prothèse scandal

At the end of December 2011 Schätzl publicly admitted to be, like 16,000 other German women, affected by the scandal about unsafe breast implants made out of industrial silicone by the French company Poly Implant Prothèse. Schätzl could not remove her still intact PIP breast implants as a precaution (as recommended by Germany's Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices) because she announced in January 2012 that she was five months pregnant and therefore did not want to take the risk of a general anaesthetic in fear of harming her unborn child. Schätzl raised awareness about the problems women with the toxic implants faced; however, she never sold her interviews about this issue or her pregnancy for money to the press but helped with her media partners several women, who couldn't afford the operation, to have their implants replaced for free.

## Family

After an unproblematic start to her pregnancy doctors noticed complications in the eighth month and her son Louis Tiger was born six weeks early by caesarean on 11 May 2012. While her premature baby had to stay in an incubator, Sara Schätzl was also in poor health condition (later diagnosed as myocardial inflammation due to an influenza during the fifth month of her pregnancy, which therefore could not be treated with antibiotics) and she could only leave the hospital with her son four weeks after the birth. When her then boyfriend of 14 months and the father of her son, the DJ and owner of the record label Jee-Productions Jerome Isma-Ae left her shortly after the birth of their son, she lived through a traumatic time she decided to move to Los Angeles and start a new life with her son in the United States. In August 2013 she received her green card attesting her permanent resident status in the United States as "Alien of extraordinary ability".

## Immigration to the United States

After her traumatic split from the father of her son Schätzl decided to start a new life in the US. She moved to Los Angeles, California, in late 2012. She shared her journey with the popular TV show Auf und davon – Mein Auslandstagebuch, in episodes aired in 2014.
Thanks to her body of work and prior success Schätzl secured her green card as an "alien of extraordinary ability" in 2013 at the age of 26.
She became eligible for naturalization, the process of becoming US citizen. Having made a home and career in two countries (the US and Germany) Schätzl did not want to lose her German citizenship by accepting American citizenship – a common consequence, as explained on the website of the German embassy. She applied for an exemption in form of a retention permit] through the German government and met the requirements in early 2019. She then continued her pursuit of naturalization and announced that she was sworn in as an American citizen in February 2021 through her Instagram profile. She has since been vocal about her journey to success and immigration as depicted in over ten different TV shows and many print media interviews, such as a piece] published about her in 2015 in Stern magazine.

## Career
### Early years

Schätzl started to get roles as an extra and supporting act in films and TV series like SOKO 5113 and the telenovela Lotta in Love. She made also commercials after she had already done her first at the age of ten.

### German It-girl

In 2007 photos appeared in the tabloid press showing the 19-year-old Schätzl as the alleged holiday flirt of actor Bernd Herzsprung during a joint stay in the hotel Liebes Rot Flüh in Haldensee, Tyrol in Austria. Later it came to light that the 65-year-old Herzsprung had arranged the 'paparazzi' pictures himself with the photographer and Schätzl after the separation from his wife Barbara Engel and he denied having a relationship with the young actress. Schätzl had then a string of public relationships before settling down with Jerome Isma-ae in 2010.
Sara Schätzl became an it girl and part of the Munich high society. Her growing celebrity status can be traced back through archived sources like Getty Images and Flickr since red carpet appearances in 2007. Having her carrier span over 17 years at the age of 35 in 2022.

## Publications

In 2009 she started to write the column "Zur Sache Schätzl!" about unusual stories from Munich in the popular German tabloid Bild.
Her first book, Glamourgirl, was published in November 2011 by Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf. It tells in 33 stories her journey from a small town country girl into the limelight in a big city. In the book she admitted to manipulating the media to make her life seem more turbulent than it was as a way to heighten her name recognition and celebrity. She used the book to give the reader a look behind the scenes of TV and print and admitted to her PR stunts. However, the public was seemingly able to forgive her, and she has built her career on a less turbulent foundation since then.
This earned her another contract in 2013 with Schwarzkopf and Schwarzkopf for a second book, Hungriges Herz ("Hungry heart"), published in 2015. In it, she chronicled her long battle with bulimia and depression, beginning when she was 14. After she was hospitalized twice in 2014, once diagnosed with life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias, she decided to start a therapy and join a support group in Los Angeles. In the last months of her therapy Schätzl used her diary notes, together with records from her mother and friends, to write the book.. She dedicated it to her stepmother Kathrin, who had taken her life by suicide. The book became a bestseller in Germany, and in May 2015 Schätzl started a project on Kickstarter to collect $35000 to produce a short documentary film, ADDICT, based on the book and show the film for free in schools to discuss the problem of eating disorders with young people. The project ended on 21 May 2015 unsuccessfully. The book, in combination with a press tour, provided Schätzl's first exposure to the public in Switzerland and Austria. She was featured in a number of reputable media sources in print and television, including Kurier Magazine and News.
Schätzl announced her third book contract in 2019.

### Los Angeles

In 2013 Schätzl moved with her son to Los Angeles to start her career as actress in Hollywood. After a report was aired on RTL program Punkt 12, her emigration in early 2013 and the process of establishing her acting career was followed by the TV station VOX in their series Auf und davon – Mein Auslandstagebuch and also documented in Schätzl's own video diary. A sequel episode of the RTL and VOX programmes following Schätzl's life in Los Angeles were filmed during autumn 2013 and was aired on VOX in January 2014.
Schätzl studied acting at the Marjorie Ballentine Studio in Los Angeles. In her first movie role she appears as Greta in the short film Doradus, written and directed by Fernando Scarpa, which was released 3 March 2014 and opened at the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival on 25 June 2014. The film's West Coast premiere was on the 12 July 2014 as an official selection of the Downtown Film Festival Los Angeles and the movie was also chosen for the Los Angeles Fear and Fantasy Film Festival 2014. In October 2014 Doradus won the HollyShorts Monthly Screening series audience vote.
In October 2015 Schätzl was featured as a successful business woman in the Erfolgsmenschen series of the German news magazine Stern. She started together with a friend an expanding club promotion business and is the only female promoter in Los Angeles.

### Las Vegas

At the beginning of 2016 Schätzl moved from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Her move was followed by a German TV production.
In the summer of 2016 she started a cooperation, called Bottles of kindness, with the Croatian company Eva Maria Cosmetics to promote awareness of autism.
At the end of 2016, Schätzl changed career and opened a small bed and breakfast luxury trailers parked in the backyard of her Las Vegas house to have more time to look after her son, who was diagnosed with autism. A documentary about the renovation of her house, which she did herself with the help of members of a rehabilitation program, as well as the set-up and opening of the trailer hotel was aired on German TV in January 2017. She later sold the house and business separately.
Having found a passion in real estate she continued further projects through 2021, when she sold her last project on Eastern Avenue, Las Vegas. The property records on Zillow indicate that she bought the house for $240,000 in 2019 and sold it for $650,000 in May 2021. She has not acquired any new properties since then owing to the physical consequences of a 2020 car accident.

## Laughing Helps foundation

In 2013 Schätzl started the charity Laughing Helps, which aims to help homeless people in Los Angeles. Videos posted by her on YouTube earn money from sponsors depending on the number of viewers and subscribers a video receives and which is directly donated to the people in need.
She has since then continued her work with different charitable organizations but is self funding all her donations since she found more personal financial success over the years. She filmed a TV documentary showing her hands on work in December 2022.

## TV appearances
### Talk and reality shows

* Das perfekte Promi-Dinner (2011, VOX)
* Markus Lanz (2012, ZDF, Talkshow hosted by Markus Lanz)
* Anne Will (2012, ARD, Talkshow hosted by Anne Will)
* Mieten, kaufen, wohnen (2012, VOX)
* Auf und davon – Mein Auslandstagebuch (2013, VOX)
* Auf und davon (2014, VOX)
* Taff (2015, Pro7)
* Taff (2016, Pro7, "Sara Schätzl – What happens in Vegas", five episodes)
* Punkt 12 (2017, RTL)

### Commercial

* We Love to Entertain You (as Tanja, Pro7)

## Filmography

Film :
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2013 | Doradus | Gerta | Short film |
Television :
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2006 | Lotta in Love | Sandy | Pro7, telenovela |
| 2009 | SOKO 5113 | Assistant D.A. Michaele Tanzer | ZDF |

## Publications
### Column

* Zur Sache Schätzl (2010, Bild)

### Books

* Glamourgirl (2011)
* Hungriges Herz (2015)