Born in Cologne and grew up in Rhöndorf am Rhein.
Started acting school at Hamburg’s University of Music and Drama.
Moved into an apartment upstairs from Hamburg’s legendary jazz club Onkel Pö’s Carnegie Hall.
Nightly forays downstairs to see jazz greats including Dizzie Gillespie, Carla Bley, Albert Mangelsdorff, Dollar Brand, Gary Burton, Steve Swallow, Chick Corea, Dexter Gordon, Charlie Haden, Pat Metheny, Alphonse Mouzon, Hannibal Lokumbe (né Marvin Peterson), Woody Shaw, Archie Shepp, Horace Silver, Ralph Towner, and Al Jarreau.
Quit acting school due to sleep deprivation and a lack of discipline.
Member of various independent theater groups and participation in theater workshops, including one with Augusto Boal and his Theater of the Oppressed as part of the Theater of Nations festival in Hamburg.
Set up my company Pia Frankenberg Musik- und Filmproduktion and co-produced The Ortlieb Women (directed by Luc Bondy). Worked with the script supervisor during production.
Premiere of The Ortlieb Women at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Accepted German Film Prize for production alongside Jochen von Vietinghoff and Peter Zenk.
Co-producer on Ulrike Ottinger’s film Freak Orlando.
Worked as props, script supervisor, and assistant director, including with Vadim Glowna, Thomas Körfer, Hans Neuenfels, and Ulrike Ottinger.
Several sojourns in Peru and Brazil during production of Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo.
Until its dissolution, member of the Hamburg Filmbüro, an assemblage of independent filmmakers and Germany’s first self-governing film subsidy organization.
Made my first short film Sehnsucht nach dem ganz Anderen (Longing for Something Completely Different).
Short The Assault
Feature Ain't Nothing Without You which was awarded the Max Ophüls Prize.
Feature Burning Beds, starring English punk musician and singer Ian Dury.
The film won the Audience Award at the Vevey International Funny Film Festival.
Feature Never Sleep Again
Pia Frankenberg Musik- und Filmproduktion becomes Next Film, with Laurens Straub joining as a partner.
Produced the themed evenings of programming Christo and Hunde wie wir (Dogs Like Us) on the Arte channel, working with Thomas Struck on the latter.
Co-producer on Hermine Huntgeburth’s feature The Trio and Just Messing About by Jochen Kuhn.
Partner alongside Doris Bandhold and Michael Conrad in the award-winning Alabama cinema on Hamburg’s Kampnagel theater grounds.
Began work on the novel Die Kellner und ich
Relocation to New York.
The novels Die Kellner und ich, Klara und die Liebe zum Zoo, Nora and Der letzte Dreh, as well as several short stories, are published.
Occasional articles for the newspapers Süddeutsche Zeitung, Die Zeit, die Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and die taz.
Started writing for the taz satire page Die Wahrheit.
Worked with Bernd Klöckener to develop the screenplay of my book Nora.
Moved from New York to Berlin.
Monthly column for the taz section Die Wahrheit.
TV series Borckmeyers Beste (© P. Frankenberg, J. Frankenberg, M. Weimer).
Die Maklerin (The Agent, working title), novel.