Who Is Gorica Popović

Gorica Popović is a Serbian theatre, film and television actress, born on 13 August 1952 in Kragujevac. Her career spans more than five decades, and audiences remember her for playing Šilja in the film “National Class Category Up to 785 ccm,” the secretary Dara in the series “A Better Life,” and Empress Milica in the film “The Battle of Kosovo.”

She is a longtime member of Belgrade’s Atelje 212, where she has appeared in more than forty productions. Besides acting, she also pursued music as a member of the band Suncokret, and she is known for her love of handicrafts, painting and cooking.

She has received the Golden Arena in Pula, two “Empress Theodora” awards, the Nušić Award, the “Žanka Stokić” Award and other honours. Read on to learn more about her childhood, education, roles and private life.

Early Life and Childhood

Family and Home

Gorica grew up in Kragujevac, in a family that rented a home in a large shared courtyard with several houses. She describes her childhood as happy, full of flowers, pets and play.

The pillar of the family was her grandmother Zagorka. She was widowed during the Second World War, as her husband died in captivity, yet she raised two daughters on her own: Gorica’s mother and her aunt. Later she stayed close to her grandchildren and, as Gorica recalls, spoiled them endlessly.

The house was steeped in art. Her father worked at the Joakim Vujić Theatre in Kragujevac as a painter, performer and set designer, so the family home was always surrounded by paper, paints and brushes. He sometimes took his daughter to work, and the smell of the stage, the makeup room and the costumes stayed with her as something magical.

Her brother Goran, five years older, also loved recitation, but he heeded their strict father, became a technology engineer and later returned to art as a graphic designer. From her mother and grandmother, Gorica learned early on to sew, knit and embroider, and she still keeps the old Singer sewing machine.

First Steps in Amateur Theatre

Her school noticed her gift for recitation early, and she performed at every school event. She then began attending a drama studio at the Youth Cultural Centre, led by Mirko Đoković. The rock band Smak also got its start in the same space. Her father initially objected, fearing that her schoolwork would suffer and that an artist’s life was uncertain.

She played her first role in the sixth or seventh grade of primary school, as the grandmother in Branko Ćopić’s play “Vuk Bubalo,” directed by the actor Mirko Babić. Her father was angry and did not speak to her for several months, but he softened after seeing the performance. For her next role she won the best newcomer award at the Festival of Drama Amateurs of Serbia in Kula, and a few years later she won an award for costume at the same festival, as she had been in charge of costumes at the theatre in Aleksinac.

Education

Gorica Popović attended the First Kragujevac Gymnasium. In her final year her teachers entrusted her with directing a play, so she gathered about ten friends and staged a collage-style production based on “The Alarm Clock,” a book by the satirist Vlada Bulatović Vib. The play drew a lot of attention, played to full houses and won awards, and even reached the main showcase of Yugoslav amateur drama on the island of Hvar. It was there, she says, that she finally decided to become an actress.

Until then she had been thinking about costume design, since, like the rest of her family, she drew a great deal. At the urging of people she trusted, she went to Belgrade to try her luck at acting. She was first accepted to study Spanish and English at the Faculty of Philology, but Professor Predrag Bajčetić chose her for the acting class he led at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts. Out of about 500 candidates, thirteen were admitted.

Her classmates included Tanja Bošković, Ljiljana Dragutinović, Radmila Živković, Jelica Sretenović, Milan Štrljić and Zlata Numanagić. Most of them came from smaller towns, so they relied on one another. Classes lasted all day, and they spent evenings at the theatre and the cinema, at a time when FEST was just beginning. Under the rules of the time, students were not allowed to work professionally during their first two years.

Early Career

She landed her first professional engagements in her third year of study. She made her debut on the small stage of the National Theatre, then called Krug 101, in a production directed by Dragoslav Lazić, where she played a reporter with a tape recorder. Another production at the National Theatre followed, and then an engagement at the Terazije Theatre.

Professor Branivoje Đorđević then invited her back to the faculty as an assistant in voice and diction. She was soon transferred to the acting department, where she assisted Professor Minja Dedić. Only slightly older than her students, she befriended those who would go on to become leading names in Serbian acting: Branislav Lečić, Dara Džokić, Branimir Brstina, Žarko Laušević, Sonja Savić, Svetislav Bula Gocić, Enver Petrovci, Zoran Cvijanović, Suzana Petričević and Gordana Gadžić.

She especially remembers Sonja Savić, who moved her to tears at the entrance exam with a performance of Tatyana’s letter to Onegin.

Music Career and the Band Suncokret

Alongside her work at the faculty, Gorica Popović also sang. Ljuba Ninković and Vojislav Koki Đurić of the band S vremena na vreme heard her singing Russian songs with Tanja Bošković and Ljiljana Dragutinović, and invited them to sing with the band while the other members were doing their military service.

She did not stay with that group for long. She met Bora Đorđević, who then had a band called Suncokret and was looking for a female vocalist. Her fellow student Biljana Krstić soon joined as well. The band entered the charts and played concerts in large halls. When film engagements began, music had to give way to acting, and Đorđević was already planning to found the band Riblja Čorba.

Rise to Fame

First Film Roles

Her first major film role came in “The Fragrance of Wild Flowers,” directed by Srđan Karanović. The real turning point was Goran Marković’s 1979 film “National Class Category Up to 785 ccm,” in which she played Šilja, a city girl. For this role she won the Golden Arena in Pula, which, as she says, surprised even her, since far better-known actors were at the festival.

Film offers kept coming. She appeared in “The Fall of Italy” (1981), “In the Jaws of Life” (1984), “The End of the War” (1984), “Six Days in June” (1985), “The Dark Side of the Sun” (1988) and “The Battle of Kosovo” (1989), in which she played Empress Milica. She also appeared in “Sex – Party’s Enemy No. 1” (1990), “The Wounds” (1998), “Peasants” (2001) and “The Professional” (2003).

Television

On television she appeared in series and dramas including “The Grey House,” “Up and Down” and “Vuk Karadžić.” In the 1987 series “Vuk Karadžić,” directed by Đorđe Kadijević, she played Ljubica Obrenović, a character she had earlier played in his TV drama “Karađorđe’s Death.” According to her, the series was once named the best European series of the year.

Her greatest popularity on the small screen came from the series “A Better Life.” She played the secretary Dara, and the series, as she puts it, was the first in this region to reach such high viewing figures. She credits its success to the atmosphere on set, where everyone behaved like a family. People still sometimes call her Dara today.

Greatest Achievements

Atelje 212

In 1982, Ljubomir Draškić and Mira Trailović invited her to Atelje 212, and she moved from the faculty to the theatre whose actors she had always admired. She has appeared in more than forty productions there, and by her own account in 2021 she was the oldest member of the ensemble.

The Production “The Ship Sails to Belgrade”

At the suggestion of Nebojša Bradić, the musical production “The Ship Sails to Belgrade” was created in 1997, because audiences loved comedies and plays with songs. Many actors passed through it, and Cune Gojković made a guest appearance.

She remembers two performances in particular. Once, Rade Šerbedžija left his daughter’s wedding to make it to the show and brought Kemal Monteno and Haris Džinović with him, and they sang a verse each of “Emina” on stage. Just before the pandemic, the production was performed for the Novak Đoković Foundation, and Novak, together with his wife Jelena, joined in the singing on stage.

Recent Roles

At Atelje 212 she appears in “The Liars” (“Lažljivica”), a comedy by the Russian playwright Nikolai Kolyada, directed by Stefan Sabljić, alongside Jelisaveta Seka Sablić. The premiere took place before the pandemic, and the production has toured to Petrovac and Vienna. She also appeared in Olga Dimitrijević’s play “How Good to See You Again,” directed by Aleksandra Milavić Davis, alongside Svetlana Bojković, Tanja Bošković, Sofija Juričan and Ivan Mihailović. The premiere of that production closed the Sterija Theatre Festival.

Among her more recent television roles is the piano teacher in the RTS series “Muddy Tires” (“Kaljave gume”), written by Mia Ćertić and directed by Miodrag Ćertić. She also appeared in the series “The Priest’s Wife” (“Popadija”) and “The Staffroom” (“Zbornica”), and in the film “Indigo Crystal” (2023).

She also took part in Emir Kusturica’s opera production “Time of the Gypsies” (“Dom za vešanje”), where, as she notes, she saw how well the director understands the theatre.

Public Engagement

Gorica Popović has occasionally spoken publicly on social issues. In early 2025, when theatres went on a seven-day strike in support of the student protests, she told N1 that she admired the students. She also said that actors displayed a banner at the end of every performance, and that audiences responded with powerful applause.

Personal Life

Gorica Popović is married to the jazz saxophonist Nenad Neša Petrović, who has been a member of the No Smoking Orchestra since 1999. According to her, she has travelled around the world with him, and she announced that in 2022 they would mark thirty years of marriage.

She devotes her free time to handicrafts, painting, cooking and gardening. Together with the Sarajevo painter Alena Gojak, she organised the charity exhibition “Let’s Colour the World” (“Obojimo svet”) at Atelje 212, which also featured her embroidered pictures. The proceeds go toward equipping a playroom in the children’s oncology ward of the clinic in Niš. She says that a single embroidered picture can sometimes take her a month.

She is close to her friend and godmother (kuma) Biljana Krstić, whom she met while studying and who sang with her in Suncokret.

Trivia

• As a sixth-grader, she was part of a delegation of twelve children from Kragujevac at the celebration of Josip Broz Tito’s birthday in Belgrade, where she recited. Tito had a cold at the time, so he did not shake hands with the children.
• She still keeps the old Singer sewing machine from her childhood.
• She was an assistant to many actors who later became well known, among them Branislav Lečić, Sonja Savić and Branimir Brstina.
• By her own account, she is constantly coming up with new techniques for dyeing Easter eggs.
• Her life motto consists of two thoughts: that you cannot hold two watermelons in one hand, and that the sun is always shining above the clouds.
• A documentary has been made about her, and according to her in 2021, a monograph was ready for publication.

Awards and Recognition

During a career of more than five decades, Gorica Popović has received numerous honours for her work in theatre and film:

• the Golden Arena in Pula for playing Šilja in “National Class Category Up to 785 ccm”
• two “Empress Theodora” awards at the film festival in Niš
• the Nušić Award
• the “Great Žanka” (“Velika Žanka”)
• the “Žanka Stokić” Award (2019)
• the “Pavle Vuisić” Award
• the best newcomer award and the costume award at the Festival of Drama Amateurs of Serbia in Kula

The “Žanka Stokić” Award was presented to her in May 2019 at the National Theatre in Belgrade. The award is given jointly by the National Theatre, the newspaper “Večernje novosti” and the City of Požarevac. The jury included Radmila Živković and Nataša Ninković, National Theatre director Ivana Vujić, writer Goran Petrović and Milorad Vučelić. At the ceremony she performed Arsen Dedić’s ballad “My Friend Is Dead,” a monologue by Verica Urošević and an original song from the monodrama “Mrs. Milihbrot.” Her classmate Radmila Živković wished her many more decades as a top-class actress.

Legacy and Influence

Gorica Popović is regarded as one of the most respected actresses of her generation. The newspaper Novosti described her as an actress of the people and compared her to Žanka Stokić, Ljubinka Bobić and Rada Savićević, highlighting her warmth, strength and simplicity.

Her mark is visible in several fields: in film, where she is remembered for the character of Šilja; on television, where Dara from “A Better Life” became part of popular culture; and in the theatre, where she has built a bond with audiences on the stage of Atelje 212 for decades. As an assistant at the faculty, she also took part in educating a generation of actors who later became widely recognisable.

Biography – Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Gorica Popović?

Gorica Popović is a Serbian theatre, film and television actress and a member of Atelje 212. She is known for her roles in the film “National Class Category Up to 785 ccm” and the series “A Better Life.”

When and where was Gorica Popović born?

She was born on 13 August 1952 in Kragujevac. As of October 2026, she is 74 years old.

Where did Gorica Popović study acting?

She studied at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, in the class of Professor Predrag Bajčetić. Out of about 500 candidates at the entrance exam, thirteen were admitted.

What roles is Gorica Popović best known for?

She is best known for playing Šilja in the film “National Class Category Up to 785 ccm,” the secretary Dara in the series “A Better Life,” Empress Milica in the film “The Battle of Kosovo,” and Ljubica Obrenović in the series “Vuk Karadžić.”

Which role earned Gorica Popović the Golden Arena?

She won the Golden Arena in Pula for playing Šilja in Goran Marković’s film “National Class Category Up to 785 ccm.”

Which theatre does Gorica Popović perform in?

She has been a member of Belgrade’s Atelje 212 since 1982, where she has appeared in more than forty productions.

Did Gorica Popović sing in a band?

Yes. She was a member of Suncokret, led by Bora Đorđević, and briefly sang with the band S vremena na vreme as well.

Who is Gorica Popović’s husband?

She is married to the jazz saxophonist Nenad Neša Petrović, a member of the No Smoking Orchestra since 1999.

What awards has Gorica Popović won?

She has won the Golden Arena in Pula, two “Empress Theodora” awards, the Nušić Award, the “Great Žanka,” and the “Žanka Stokić” and “Pavle Vuisić” awards.

What does Gorica Popović do outside of acting?

She does embroidery, painting, cooking and gardening. She has also exhibited her embroidered pictures at the charity exhibition “Let’s Colour the World.”

Conclusion

Gorica Popović is an actress for whom the theatre was a magical place from childhood. From amateur productions in Kragujevac, through the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, she made her way to Atelje 212, where she has built her career for decades. Šilja from “National Class,” Dara from “A Better Life” and Empress Milica from “The Battle of Kosovo” remain her most recognisable roles. Her biography shows an actress who has managed to combine film, television, theatre and music while remaining close to her audience.