Barbara Meier

Meier in 2007

During her studies, Meier was approached by a model scout in a shopping center in Regensburg who invited her to the casting of the TV show Germany's Next Topmodel. In the course of the show, she had to face a series of challenges in order to outrival her contestants. Even before the end of the show, one of these minor competitions had her win a leading role alongside Heidi Klum in a nationwide TV commercial for McDonald's. Meier did not have any modeling experience before that but she was able to prevail against 16,421 competitors and became the winner of the season on 24 May 2007. The prize included a contract with the modelling agency IMG Models in Paris, an appearance on the cover of the German edition of Cosmopolitan in August 2007, and a contract as the face of the next advertising campaign for the clothing company C&A.

Meier was featured in editorials of many international magazines such as Vogue Taiwan, Grazia, InStyle, Elle, Madame Figaro, L'Officiel, etc. and appeared on the cover of over 15 German and international magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Icon, Style International, Tango, She, etc.

She was the face of many advertising campaigns for the brands Pantene, C&A, Disneyland Resort Paris, Yogurette, Müller Milk and McDonald's and also internationally for Maybelline, Fabi, Borsalino, Save the Queen, Colin's Jeans, C'est comme Ca, Charactere, Miss Poem and many more.[2] Since January 2016, she has been promoting the cosmetics manufacturer Schaebens.[3] She is also the German advertising face of the American shoe brand Skechers and the pulse watch manufacturer Polar.

Since the beginning of her career, Meier has been on the catwalk for national as well as international brands. At the beginning of 2011 she ran for the fifth time for various designers at Fashion Week Berlin. In addition to shows in Los Angeles, New York, Paris and Bangkok Meier participated in the Fashion Week Paris in the spring of 2010, where she was booked by the designer Wolfgang Joop for the prêt-à-porter show of his brand Wunderkind.[4]

In 2010, Meier was invited to a film casting for the ProSieben mystery thriller Schreie der Vergessenen.[5] She had no acting experience at that time yet and got the role of the deaf medium Morgana. After the broadcast of the film in autumn 2011, she was taken under contract by the Berlin acting agency Fitz & Skoglund.[6]

In summer of 2011, Meier completed a basic education at the New York Film Academy and since then she has taken private acting lessons with various coaches in Germany and the United States.[7] In addition to small roles in TV films, Meier played in main roles of various ZDF crime series, short films, working with Christiane Hörbiger. In 2012, she played one of the leading roles in the short film Wiegenlied (Director: Selcuk Cara, Germany, 2012), which had its premiere in 2012 under the international title Lullaby in the Student Etudes Panorama section at the film festival Plus Camerimage in Bydgoszcz, Poland.

Meier in 2015

In August 2017, Meier shot her first movie, The Aspern Papers, a period drama directed by Julien Landais and based on Henry James's novel. She played alongside Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Morgane Polanski, and Poppy Delevingne.[8]

In December 2015, Meier's book Dein Weg zum Glücksgewicht was published by Dorling Kindersley. She describes the work as an "anti-diet book" and above all wants to motivate women and make them feel better in their bodies.[9]