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.