Stefanie Preissner (born 21 April 1987) is an Irish writer, actress, influencer, script supervisor, activist and columnist. She is best known as the creator of

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

Can't Cope, Won't Cope ''Can't Cope, Won't Cope'' is an Irish comedy-drama television series. It was created by Stefanie Preissner and produced for RTÉ2 in 2016. Seána Kerslake played fund manager Aisling and Nika McGuigan played art student Danielle. They are twent ...

''. Stef got the idea for this from copying exactly what two of her friends did. It's basically a documentary.

Early life

An only child born in Munich, Germany, Preissner moved to Mallow,

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns are ...

with her mother, Bernie, from Dublin after she had separated from her husband, Stefanie's

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

father. She gained a BA in Spanish and drama and theatre studies from University College Cork. She attended the

Garda Síochána College Garda Síochána College is the education and training college of the Garda Síochána (Irish police service). It is located at McCan Barracks, Templemore, County Tipperary in Ireland. The college has been in Templemore since 1964. History The ...

Templemore Templemore () is a town in County Tipperary, Ireland. It is a civil parish in the historical barony of Eliogarty. It is part of the parish of Templemore, Clonmore and Killea in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly. The 2011 Ce ...

County Tipperary County Tipperary ( ga, Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary, and was established in the early 13th century, shortly after t ...

for a short period. She attended the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin in 2008.

Career

Preissner's first acting role was in

Enda Walsh Enda Walsh (born 1967) is an Irish playwright. Biography Enda Walsh was born in Kilbarrack, North Dublin on February 7, 1967. His father ran a furniture shop and his mother had been an actress. He is the second youngest of six children. Wal ...

's ''Chatroom''. Preissner wrote and starred in ''Our Father'' and ''Solpadeine is my Boyfriend'' a one-woman show for the

Dublin Fringe Festival The Dublin Fringe Festival is an annual curated arts festival in Dublin, Ireland focusing mainly on theatre. The festival allows artists to submit their work via an application which is subsequently reviewed by the programme manager. The festiva ...

, and she toured it internationally. The show was recreated for

RTÉ Radio RTÉ Radio is a division of the Irish national broadcasting organisation Raidió Teilifís Éireann. RTÉ Radio broadcasts four analogue channels and five digital channels nationwide. Founded in January 1926 as 2RN, the first broadcaster in t ...

Drama on One. The podcast of this version is the most downloaded of all podcasts from RTÉ. Preissner created a series of documentaries entitled ''How To Adult'' for the

RTÉ Player RTÉ Player is an on demand video service provided by Irish public media broadcaster RTÉ. The service provides live and recorded RTÉ television programmes, and content exclusive to the player as well as content from other international broad ...

. Preissner's first book ''Why can't everything just stay the same? : and other things I shout when I can't cope'' is a collection of poetry and prose. It was published in 2017. Her second book ''Can I Say No?: One Woman's Battle with a Small Word'' was published in 2019. In 2017, Preissner was developing a screenplay ''closerthanthis'' (sic) for Brooklyn producers Parallel Films. She was also developing a TV pilot with

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service in ...

. In 2020, Preissner started a podcast called
Basically
from HeadStuff Podcast Network

''Can't Cope, Won't Cope''

Preissner created RTÉ2's ''

'' starring

Seána Kerslake Seána Kerslake () is an Irish actress. She is known for portraying the role of Aisling O'Dowd in RTÉ2 comedy-drama '' Can't Cope, Won't Cope'' (2016–2018). In 2017, she was named one of sixteen young actors by Screen International as a '' Sta ...

and

Amy Huberman Amy Huberman (born 20 March 1979) is an Irish actress and writer, which is known for her role as Daisy in the RTÉ drama series '' The Clinic''. In 2018, she began writing and starring in the comedy series ''Finding Joy''. Early life Huberman g ...

in 2016. The first season was picked up by

BBC 3 BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, curre ...

in 2017 and Netflix in the US and UK in 2018. A second series was commissioned in 2017.

Personal life

In October 2021, Preissner revealed that she was diagnosed with

autism The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...

earlier in 2021.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Preissner, Stefanie 1987 births 21st-century Irish novelists 21st-century Irish women writers Actresses from Munich German emigrants to Ireland Irish people of German descent Irish screenwriters Irish television producers Irish women novelists People on the autism spectrum Living people People from Mallow, County Cork Alumni of Garda Síochána College Irish women television producers Irish women screenwriters 21st-century Irish screenwriters