Nikki J. Borger came to the United States in 2018 to develop a career in Hollywood. What she didn't expect was that the next seven years would be defined not by auditions and film sets, but by hospital rooms and hospice care. Her mother died in a car crash in 2019. Her stepfather survived pancreatic cancer against nearly impossible odds, only for it to return years later. Her father-in-law passed in 2024. And her biological father died earlier this year after a long illness. Through all of it, Nikki was the one holding things together.

In this conversation, Nikki and I talk about how she turned that experience into her writing — including her one-act plays in the collection In Between, several of which deal directly with mortality and what it means to be present with someone at the end of their life. We get into why writing brought her clarity even when talking about it out loud didn't come naturally, and how that clarity let her show up for her own family during some of the hardest moments a person can go through.

We also cover a lot of ground on the creative side: her acting training, her time performing in Los Angeles play festivals, her new comedy web series NFTeasing, and her app, Five Minute Meditations, which is built around the idea that meditation should fit into a real, busy life rather than the other way around. Nikki and I also swap caregiving stories of our own — this is a topic close to my heart, and I think it will be for a lot of you listening too.

This one covers a lot of territory — grief, creative persistence, and the practical reality of building a career out of several different projects at once. I think you'll get something out of it whether or not you've ever set foot near a stage.

What We Cover (Approximate Timestamps)

• 00:36 — Welcoming Nikki to the show
• 04:00 — Nikki's path from rural Germany to Los Angeles, and the health struggles she grew up with
• 10:53 — The seven-year stretch of caregiving: her mother's sudden death, her stepfather's cancer, and her father's illness
• 17:00 — Why writing — more than talking — gave her clarity, and how that showed up when she wrote her family's obituaries
• 18:00 — A closer look at her play collection In Between and the plays inspired directly by her losses
• 32:00 — Her new comedy web series, NFTeasing, and her approach to building an audience before building the whole show
• 34:00 — Five Minute Meditations — her app built around short, consistent meditation instead of long, occasional sessions
• 44:00 — My own caregiving experience with my father-in-law, and the larger shortage of caregivers in this country
• 48:00 — Her acting training and background in dance
• 53:00 — Why she keeps several creative projects going at once, and why that's a deliberate choice rather than a lack of focus

About Nikki J. Borger

Nikki J. Borger is an actress, playwright, producer, and entrepreneur. Originally from Germany, she moved to the United States in 2018 to pursue a career in film and theater. Her work includes the one-act play collection In Between and other published plays available on Amazon, several of which have been staged in Los Angeles festivals. She is currently in production on a comedy web series and runs Five Minute Meditations, a meditation app and Instagram account focused on short, practical energy work.

Find Nikki:

• Website: nikkijborger.com
• Books (plays, available in paperback and Kindle Unlimited): search "Nikki J. Borger" on Amazon
• Five Minute Meditations: on Instagram, search "five_minute" or her linktree