Educational. Entertaining.
Informative. Fun.
Kay Xander Mellish 🇩🇰
Danish culture explained with humor, insight, and real-world experience.
Kay’s books and audiobooks
Kay is the author of five books about life as an international in Denmark, all of which are also available as audiobooks and eBooks. You can buy Kay’s books directly from our webshop, and we also provide direct links to international booksellers such as Amazon and Apple Books. Kay’s approach to the joys and difficulties of life in Denmark as a foreigner are written with gentle humor; she likes Denmark, now speaks fluent Danish, and has become a Danish dual citizen.
Presentations on Danish working culture
Kay helps Danes and internationals work better together. She travels throughout Denmark and Europe delivering presentations and workshops that help newcomers better understand Danish culture and Danish working culture, and help Danes examine some of the aspects of their own culture that they sometimes take for granted. Kay has also helped several teams of US and Danish colleagues understand their cultural differences.
Kay on video or hear her podcasts
Kay has been the voice behind the “How to Live in Denmark” podcast since 2013 and also works as a professional voiceover for corporate e-learning programs and advertisements. She also offers a line of self-guided audio tours for visitors exploring Denmark. Kay is a frequent guest on Danish national television and radio and is often quoted in the international media about issues related to Denmark. You can see Kay’s videos or contact her for media appearances below.
What customers say
Kay’s books
Kay’s audiobooks
Sample audiobook:
Kay in the media
A former journalist with ABCNews.com and Dow Jones/the Wall Street Journal, Kay works closely with journalists in both Denmark in the US to deliver a realistic picture of Denmark and how Danes and internationals can work better together. She also occasionally writes articles for the Danish media.
Kay speaks Danish and can generally work to deadline. See Kay’s media appearances.
If you are a journalist who would like to use Kay as a source for a story about Danish culture or Denmark, contact Kay using the button below.
You can also see a selection of Kay on video.
Tour Denmark with Kay
Take a self-guided audio tour designed and voiced by Kay Xander Mellish.
The tours are GPS-based, so you can put your phone away while Kay tells you amusing stories about the sights you are seeing.
The “How to Live in Denmark” project
When Kay first moved to Copenhagen, she wrote a few blog posts about her experiences – and then forgot about them, as she focused on her corporate work and building a family.
But to her surprise, she would regularly receive notes from newcomers to Denmark who had discovered the blogs online and found them helpful.
Later, Kay turned some of the blog posts into a podcast, originally designed to promote her voiceover business. The How to Live in Denmark podcast took off and has run continuously since 2013, with more than a million downloads.
Meanwhile, the How to Live in Denmark website became the basis for the How to Live in Denmark book, first published in 2014 and updated in 2017. Kay now travels all over the country with her How to Live in Denmark welcome presentation for newcomers.
Who is Kay Xander Mellish?
Kay is a writer, short-form podcaster, and keynote speaker who grew up in the USA and has lived in Denmark for more than 10 years. She has been on staff at large Danish companies including Danske Bank and Carlsberg and now runs KXMGroup, helping Danes and internationals work better together, and How to Live in Denmark, which helps newcomers understand Danish culture.
A native of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, Kay attended New York University in Manhattan, where she graduated cum laude with a degree in journalism and art history.
She worked as a journalist in Berlin, Germany and Hong Kong before returning to Manhattan and working in the media industry at Dow Jones/the Wall Street Journal, CNN, and ABCnews.com before moving to Denmark.
Kay lives with her family in Copenhagen Northwest. In her spare time, she enjoys reading biographies and watching old Hollywood movies.
Contact Kay
Or contact me through LinkedIn
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