about Annika Hagen Siemsen

Annika was born in Mexico City and moved to the West Coast of Canada at age 5. Her family relocated to Salt Spring Island when she was 11 at which point she began attendeding Shawnigan Lake School. Annika spent her final school year in Nice, France and then enrolled in the UVIC Creative Writing department to study Poetry. Soon after and long before obtaining a degree, she moved to New York City to fulfil an editorial internship at Grove Atlantic Publishing. During the three years she lived (and waitressed) in NYC, she also studied acting at Stella Adler Conservatory and worked for Josh Harris and Robert Galinsky at the world’s first online content streaming network, Pseudo Entertainment, (specifically Channel P, the Poetry Channel). Annika spent her evenings working up the courage to perform slam poetry at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and various open mics. During this time she fell madly in love with cinema and took up the long pursuit of screenwriting and filmmaking. In 2000, Annika moved back home to attend the Vancouver Film School where a short film of hers was produced. After graduating, she took a job coordinating the story department at Studio B, a local animation studio. During her three years there she wrote various kids cartoons. Following this she spent three years with Vancouver’s Infinity Features as a Producer's Assistant. After taking a writing/waitressing hiatus for a few years she finally fell into one of her favourite roles: as a Script Supervisor. In 2010 Annika met her husband Jorge Siemsen while they were both on holiday in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (where her artist mother Ute Hagen was living at the time). Shortly thereafter, Annika spent a year in Brazil with Jorge during which time she worked on her largest feature film as the continuity supervisor on ‘Flores Raras’ directed by Bruno Barreto. In 2012, Jorge and Annika moved back to Vancouver where they married. In 2013 Annika founded L A M P, an International Lighting Design Competition, with her good friend and business partner Nicole Fox. In 2014 Jorge and Annika had their first baby girl. In 2016 Annika and Jorge took a chance on a piece of property close to Ganges on Salt Spring Island, renovated an old farm house, had another baby girl, built a studio, opened a little b&b called Salty Pear and are now currently loving the busy little life they have carved out.