Biography
Hildegard Caringi was born in Danzig, Germany. In 1944 - during WW II, Hildegard's father got killed in Poland, a young soldier on his way to Russia.
After the war, Danzig, no longer German, was now part of Poland, and renamed Gdansk. Hildegard's mother, enduring great hardship, relocated her small children to Schleswig-Holstein, the most northern state of Germany, not far from the Danish border. The four found a new home in a picturesque little town by the name of Rendsburg, where Hildegard grew up. Her mother remarried a few years later and soon there were five more siblings.
Trying to avoid the harsh realities of the times, when hard work, honor and duty ruled in her home over pleasure and amusement, Hildegard secretively escaped from haunting WW II memories to new heights into a world of make-believe. She longed for a magical life, finding herself in her own fantasy world with a unique immortality as she chose it to be.
As a small girl, possessing few toys, no books, or other luxuries, Hildegard escaped to a world of fairies, leprechauns, angels, goblins, and other imaginary creatures. She performed unique puppet shows, creating tales inspired by her own heroes and villains and made up lively bedside stories, stimulating her creativity and her desire to write and perform. Trusting in her aspiration, she eagerly followed her dreams. It is this same desire that brought Hildegard to pen The Joy of Being, a vineyard of poems and short stories, and Once Upon a Sandcastle, a juvenile adventure-fantasy book.
Hildegard studied medical instruments in Germany and has a degree in business administration. She lived in England for a year, followed by a few months in France, while waiting for her immigration papers to the United States of America to come through.
In Washington D.C. she stayed in a family, working as a mother's helper. One year later, in New York City and soon also in Miami, Florida she worked as a model in fashion and photography, appearing on runways and various magazines and record covers.
Hildegard has lived in many parts of the world, eventually making her way to Hollywood where she studied drama and for more than thirty years acted in films, television shows, and commercials, in addition to her career as a drama coach, a German language disc jockey for the German language Radio program at 93.5 FM, Redondo Beach, and as a German language TV announcer for EURO TV1, INC. over SATCOM F 4 and others, she interviewed show business personalities for several years, writing their stories for the German newspaper "Die Neue Presse" which still appears every Sunday nationwide.
Her passion for acting and the desire to teach inspired her to create a family workshop for actors. And while acting as a drama coach for nineteen years there, she wrote and directed her own plays, performing them for various benefits... always stressing the family values.
She has written some television shows, short stories, poems (in both English and German), and numerous plays, directing many of them. She has read her work in local theatres, fairs, schools, churches, libraries, bookstores, hospitals, retirement centers, and often in her own home to test new fables on the neighborhood children. She never outgrew her interest and curiosity for the magic and wonders of the make-believe world.
Hildegard lives in Quartz Hill, California with her husband of 36 years, actor/writer/producer Steve Drexel.
