Who Is Andrej Maričić

Andrej Maričić (born in Belgrade on 11 April 1980) is a Serbian adventurer, TV host and author of travel documentary series. The wider public first got to know him in 2010 and 2011, when he won the first celebrity season of Survivor Srbija, filmed in the Philippines.

After that victory he built a career quite unlike a typical television one. He is the author of the series “Život sa prirodom” (Life with Nature), “Putevima Indokine” (Along the Roads of Indochina) and “Bez granica sa Andrejem” (Without Borders with Andrej), which has aired on N1 television since 2017. He films almost everything himself, with no camera operator or crew.

Because of this approach, the media often call him the Serbian Bear Grylls. Today he also publishes part of his content on his YouTube channel, where viewers follow his adventures across dozens of countries.

Early Life and Childhood

Andrej Maričić was born in Belgrade on 11 April 1980. The date is given by Wikipedia and confirmed by other sources about his biography.

By his own account, he spent his childhood in a village surrounded by forest, the Sava River and the Obedska Bara wetland. He considers it a perfect childhood and says that this was when he fell in love with nature.

That early relationship with nature later became the backbone of his entire career. He has said himself that travelling and exploring were the fulfilment of dreams he had from his earliest childhood.

There is no reliable publicly available information about his schooling, so this biography does not list it.

Start of His Career

Before Survivor, Andrej Maričić worked as a television host. According to media reports, he received the name he is known by today at Košava television, where all hosts were required to change their real names at the time.

Serbian media also report that his real name is different, but this has not been officially confirmed, so this biography uses only the stage name under which he is publicly known.

Some sources claim that he first worked as a model before moving to television. This claim appears in only a few sources and should be treated with caution.

Survivor Srbija VIP: Philippines

The decisive moment in Andrej Maričić’s career was his participation in “Survivor Srbija VIP: Filipini” (Survivor Serbia VIP: Philippines). It was the first season featuring celebrities and the third season overall of the Serbian edition of the format. The show was produced by Vision Team and broadcast by Prva Srpska Televizija.

Filming took place from 1 August to 1 September 2010 on the Caramoan peninsula in the Philippines. The show aired from 22 October 2010 to 5 January 2011 and was hosted by Andrija Milošević.

Tribes and Contestants

Andrej Maričić was a member of the Kasuko tribe, while the rival tribe was called Bahandi. Other participants included Knez, Vesna Zmijanac with her daughter Nikolija, Goca Tržan, Aleksandra Perović, Katarina Vučetić, Nikola Rokvić, Bojana Barović, Edin Škorić and Toni “Zen” Petkovski.

According to Nova.rs, Andrej lost about 11 kilograms after just a month on the island. He later said that he was often in the minority compared with the other tribe, so he had no time to grieve or give up.

Victory in the Final

Andrej Maričić was declared the winner on 5 January 2011. In the final he beat Toni “Zen” Petkovski and Katarina Vučetić with a result of 8-4-2. According to Wikipedia, twelve of the votes came from the jury and two from the public.

Nova.rs reports that the main prize was 50,000 euros. After winning, Andrej said that the friendships he made on the show were his greatest reward, and he particularly stressed how much it meant to him that Knez voted for him even though he came from the rival tribe.

Life After Survivor

Winning Survivor brought Andrej Maričić great popularity, but he faced the question of which direction his career should take. He later explained that it took him a long time to find his path.

Host and Stage Role

After Survivor he hosted the show “Stoperi” together with Ena Popov. He also tried his hand at theatre, playing Jesus in the play “Majstor i Margarita” (The Master and Margarita), staged at the “Studentski grad” Cultural Centre.

Speaking about that experience, he said that the challenge was the transformation on stage, but also that acting fulfils him.

Life with Nature

He came up with the idea for his own series a few years after Survivor. That is how the adventure travel series “Andrej Maričić: Život sa prirodom” was born. His goal was to show viewers things as they really are, with no staging.

That is why he went on every shoot in the wilderness alone, without a camera operator, sound technician or driver. According to the announcement for the second season, aired in spring 2015 on the Lov i ribolov (Hunting and Fishing) channel, the series consisted of 20 half-hour episodes about the wild nature of Serbia.

He spent six months filming the third season in the mountain ranges of Serbia and Montenegro. For the fourth, in November 2015 he announced a trip to Southeast Asia, to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand.

Along the Roads of Indochina

The journey through Southeast Asia became the basis for the series “Putevima Indokine”. After nearly a year of post-production, the series began airing on N1 television.

Maričić said that he spent about 40 days on that trip and lost around twenty kilograms. He described encounters with tribes in the jungle as less dramatic than they are often portrayed, but also stressed that he had to befriend the local people before filming.

Bez granica sa Andrejem

The most important project of his career is the series “Bez granica sa Andrejem”, which N1 television has aired since 2017. Andrej is the author, host, camera operator and editor, and handles production through the company ESCAPE production.

The Series Begins on N1

A new season began on 17 September 2017 and was filmed in the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. In the Philippines he revisited the islands where his winning season of Survivor was filmed. According to him, he buried the messages of his fellow tribe members there in a jar.

In September 2018 a new season began, taking viewers to Tana Toraja on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, known for its unusual funeral customs.

New Seasons and Destinations

In the following seasons Andrej visited Cuba, South Korea, Laos and Morocco, and then the islands of the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa. The fifth season, aired in 2021, was filmed during the pandemic and dealt with Zanzibar, Pemba and their customs, including voodoo.

The sixth season, aired from 30 October 2022, began exploring Latin America from Peru, taking in Lake Titicaca, Machu Picchu and life with a tribe in the Peruvian jungle.

One of the later seasons, with 27 episodes, began in Chile and ended in the Dominican Republic, and according to Andrej, the episode about Nairobi from the previous season was among the most watched, with over two million views on YouTube.

In December 2025 N1 aired episodes filmed in El Salvador, including Tutunichapa and the CECOT prison. The latest episodes bring stories from Ecuador, from the village of El Juncal.

Working Without a Crew

According to data from 2024, Andrej had by then filmed around 250 episodes and visited more than 20 countries. He does the preparation, filming and editing himself.

He believes that the presence of a crew would disrupt his concentration and affect how authentic a situation is. That is why he chooses to work alone, with a camera that he often straps to himself.

Dangers and Challenges in the Field

Working in remote places carries real risks. Andrej Maričić has spoken on several occasions about situations in which his life was in danger.

The Mentawai Tribe on Siberut

His hardest moment came on the island of Siberut, about 200 kilometres from the coast of Sumatra. While living with the Mentawai tribe, he was poisoned by river water, developed a fever and could not stand on his feet.

Members of the tribe and a shaman cared for him for days, and when it became clear that this was not helping, they carried him through the jungle to a boat and took him to the nearest settlement, where he received an IV drip and medication.

He later returned to the tribe and filmed what he calls the most emotional season of the series. He describes the Mentawai as one of the most beautiful experiences of his career.

The Coronavirus Pandemic in 2020

In February 2020 he travelled to northern Laos, but he cut the shoot short because of the pandemic. For a time he was stuck in Bangkok because Belgrade airport was closed.

He returned to Serbia at the end of March and spent 28 days in home isolation. He turned the experience into a one-hour special of the series, and publicly appealed to the state to help other citizens who remained abroad.

Greatest Achievements

The greatest achievements of Andrej Maričić are tied to two fields: competition and his own authored work. Winning the first celebrity season of Survivor Srbija gave him recognition, but it was the series “Bez granica sa Andrejem” that showed his authorial signature.

• Winning Survivor Srbija VIP: Philippines – 5 January 2011, with a result of 8-4-2.
• The series “Život sa prirodom” – adventure travelogues filmed solo, first in Serbia and then in Southeast Asia.
• The series “Putevima Indokine” – shown on N1 television.
• The series “Bez granica sa Andrejem” – more than ten years on N1, with around 250 episodes and visits to over 20 countries.
• YouTube channel – where he publishes episodes, short documentaries and new adventures.

Private Life

Andrej Maričić lives in Belgrade. He was in a long relationship with Marija Stanisavljević, whom, according to media reports, he married in 2016.

He says she supports him and occasionally joins him on trips when her commitments allow. In one interview he said that the hardest thing for her was overcoming her fear of insects, but that she goes with him anyway.

According to Nova.rs, the couple had a son in 2022. Andrej does not talk much about family life in public.

Interesting Facts

• The nickname “Serbian Bear Grylls” comes from the media, because of the similarity between his style and that of the British adventurer.
• On shoots he wants neither a camera operator nor a driver, because he believes it would distort the reality of the situation.
• He has said that the food was tastiest to him in Africa, while with the Bushmen he also ate unusual delicacies.
• On his journey through Indochina he lost around twenty kilograms.
• With Marija he descended into the crater of the active Ijen volcano on Java, wearing gas masks because of the toxic fumes.
• There is also an actor named Andreja Maričić (1959–2021), who is not the same person.

Legacy and Influence

Andrej Maričić is among the few hosts from this region who developed from a reality format into an author of documentary travelogues. His work shows that popularity gained in a competition can be the foundation of a long-term, more serious career.

The series “Bez granica sa Andrejem” has brought domestic audiences closer to cultures, tribes and natural environments that are rarely filmed. On YouTube, the episodes still attract a large number of viewers.

His method of filming alone has inspired many travel enthusiasts, and he continues to announce new expeditions.