Ziri Rideaux is an artist, film director, funeral director, writer, serial entrepreneur and Shaman.
German-born Ziri Rideaux started writing for newspapers at age 15 and published the local political magazine Schanzer Journal at age 18. At 20, she became editor in chief of the local TV Station where she hosted the daily news hour. In 1989 Rideaux moved to Berlin where she worked as a TV news reporter and anchor for German Television, covering highlights of the German Reunification. In 1992 she left Germany to embark on a multiple year journey around the world, working as a foreign TV correspondent in places like Bosnia, Colombia, India, Afghanistan, Iraq, South Africa, Rwanda, Somalia, etc.
During those years, Rideaux worked extensively as an investigative journalist for international TV stations like the BBC, British Channel 4, Dutch and German TV, ABC New York, ABC Australia, Nippon TV NHK, Reuters News agency, etc. But Rideaux got “increasingly frustrated with the amount of censorship and propaganda we are exposed to in our daily media intake”. (Rideaux 1994)
In September 1995 Rideaux moved to Los Angeles. Her company Zirius Films produces hard-hitting documentaries and feature films. Her documentary Treewoman about Julia Butterfly Hill won international acclaim and various awards (among others, the prestigious International Documentary Association/Pare Lorentz Award). Other documentaries like Tornadoes, Curlers Against Misery, Burning Man as well as her TV-series Cowgirls were broadcast on TV-stations all over the world. In 2001, Rideaux wrote, directed and produced Backgammon, a futuristic Arthouse feature that won critical acclaim at festivals in Berlin, London and Cannes, where it received the Cannes Film Festival Independent Award – handed to Rideaux by Albert II, Prince of Monaco.
In 2002, Rideaux started the photo Agency “PicturePerfect”, a red carpet celebrity photo agency. PicturePerfect is was one of the top 20 celebrity photo agency worldwide and operated in over 40 countries.
In 2012, Rideaux started the first alternative funeral home in the U.S. called FRIENDS. FRIENDS offers personalized ceremonies and funerals of all kinds, End-of-Life Celebrations, Death Midwifing, teaches the ancient art and wisdom of dying well. Ziri innovated the funeral home business model, allowing FRIENDS to provide custom events and services on demand throughout the Los Angeles area.
Ziri has two Master Degrees (LMU Munich) in political science and investigative journalism.
Ziri is the co-founder of United States of Mind with Brendan Miller.