Larissa Vassilian

Larissa Vassilian (born 17 June 1976) is a German journalist of German-Armenian descent. She became famous for her podcast "Schlaflos in München" (Sleepless in Munich), using the stage name Annik Rubens.[1] The podcast had over 10,000 listeners daily, making her one of the most successful podcasters in the German language[1] and winning a prestigious Podcast Awards in 2005 in the "Nonenglish" category.[2] For German-language learners, she made another project called "Slow German" – a podcast on a variety of topics using clear slow pronunciation and with accompanying transcript.[3]

Vassilian was born in Konstanz, West Germany, to an Armenian father (Rouben Vassilian) and a Bavarian mother (Sylvia Vassilian).[1] She attended the Franz-Marc-Gymnasium school in Markt Schwaben. After high school, from 1995 to 2003, she studied for a master's degree program in American cultural history, political science and ethnology at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich. In 2003 and 2004 she completed a correspondence course in freelance and feature writing from the London School of Journalism. She lives in Munich.