Some peoplewhen they are young are so lucky to know what they want to do for a life career. In other words, they know what they want to be when they grow up.Others just let themselves go with the flow and keep working at different jobs until they are finally too much in debt or have too many responsibilities to allow them to quit and perhaps get a job that they are best suited for.
Gala Nikolic is one of the fortunate ones who knew early on that she wanted to be an actor. In fact, her first film role was to work with the famed actor Rade Serbedzija, who is internationally known for work with Tom Cruise and director Stanley Kubrick in Eyes Wide Shut. Others will recognize this master actor from Guy Ritchie’s film Snatch. In the film Fishing and Fishermen’s Conversations, Gala played the role of Eutherpa and Rade Serbedzijawon the Golden Arena award for Best Actor in a leading role at the Pula Film Festival. The film received a recommendation from the Ministry of Science and Education to all secondary school teachers during the 2020/2021 academic year to plan to go to the cinema with their students. It is emphasized that, in addition to being a high-quality example on which literary and audiovisual expression can be compared, it is a “valuable work that will bring students closer to Croatian cultural heritage and the influence of the cultural circle on their own identity.”
Gala Nikolic was born in Rijeka, Croatia. She earned her BA (Bachelor of Arts) in Acting at the Academy of Applied Arts at Rijeka University, in Croatia. Her acting teacher at the university was none other than Rade Serbedzija. She also has a Master of Fine Arts degree in acting from the legendary California Institute of the Arts. She was the first Croatian artist to be admitted to the acting program there.
Gala has been in scores of stage plays including but not limited to Shakespeare, Ionesco and Brecht. She toured the Balkans with the Theatre Ulysses production of Eugene Ionesco’s play Rhinoceros, and one of the tour sites was the Serbian National Theatre.
She is also a writer and director. She directed and acted in the film The More I Insult the More I Love You and directed the movie I Won’t Make it to 25. She won a Special Award for Land of the Wolves play at Festival of Small Theatre Forms in Zajecar Serbia, which she wrote and directed. The play toured for over four years at multiple national theaters and regions.
Gala was also a lead in an Augustine Machine play directed by Travis Preston that opened in Paris. She was chosen as one of 5 actors from the US to work with the french actors of the multilingual production.
