Zijah Sokolović

Zijah Sokolović — Biography

Zijah Sokolović, nicknamed Zike, was born on 22 December 1950 in Sarajevo, and has built a multi-hyphenate career as a Bosnian-Yugoslav actor, writer and director. He is best known for his solo play "Glumac je, glumac je, glumac," translated into several languages and staged in twenty countries; in the 1980s he performed at Sarajevo's Kamerni teatar 55. He has won the Sterija Award for Achievement in Acting and has been a member of the Serbian Dramatic Artists' Association since 1987.

Based in Vienna since 1992, he continues to work between that city, Zagreb, Sarajevo and Belgrade; he directs the children's theatre Theaterland in Salzburg, teaches at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz, serves as artistic director of Dežela gledališča in Ljubljana and artistic project leader of Dramatično društvo, and also directs plays in Belgrade, Zagreb, Banja Luka and his hometown of Sarajevo. His screen credits include the award-winning Yugoslav and Bosnian films Silent Gunpowder, Remake, The Abandoned, The Melon Route and Pismo - Glava; he also voiced Mr. Ping in the Serbian dub of the Kung Fu Panda franchise. He is married to Lidija Stanković, and they have a daughter, Hana Selena.