KARLA KRISTEN, born and raised in Cologne. Discovered a passion for acting in the theater at the age of eight. Since then, she has been taking theater lessons and had smaller television and film roles until the age of 15. At 17, she unexpectedly became a mother, completed her high school diploma a year later, and traveled with her daughter. The desire to work in the film industry kept resurfacing. Two internships for ifs graduation films and another child later, she was surprised by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to the decision that pursuing a film degree was not feasible in her current phase of life. She began studying Social Sciences at the University of Cologne in 2021. One year later, she participated in the mentoring programme at Filmhaus Köln, attending workshops in idea development, camera, sound, directing, editing, and technical editing, while also developing her own documentary film concept. This led to the creation of the film „Kaltes Wasser" (43 minutes), which premiered at Filmhaus in the summer of 2023. Studying at ifs since 2023.