Gerda Zinn enjoyed successes as a stage actress at the Staatsschauspiel Dresden and the Staatsoperette where she acted with Erich Ponto and Hans Helmut Dickow.
[2][3] Critic Alfred Kantorowicz praised Zinn's impressionism, stating that she “gave an example of the economy with which the means are supposed to be able to handle complicated roles in these pieces.”[4] Beginning in the 1930s, Gerda Zinn acted in film productions working with Hertha Thiele, Thea von Harbou, Johannes Riemann, and Wolfgang Staudte.
Gerda also worked as a radio play and voice actor, including for the role "Miriam" in Cecil B. DeMille's production of Samson and Delilah.
The following year at Dispeker's home in Switzerland, Zinn met Swami Prabhavananda who initiated her as a devotee, bestowing her with the Sanskrit name of Ambika.
[1] Subsequently, making her way to Southern California, she lived for two months at the Hollywood Vedanta Society where she worked in the kitchen before being dismissed from the task by Swami Prabhavananda, according to a nun in residence at the time by the name of Anandaprana.