Graduate of the Faculty of Philosophy at Charles University (Univerzita Karlova) in Prague, specialising in the history and theory of theatre. After her studies, Nina Malíková worked as an assistant artistic director and literary assistant in the theatres of Hradec Králové and Prague, where she met important personalities of Czech theatrical life: in Hradec Králové, she collaborated with director Miroslav Vildman, who shaped the early years of DRAK Theatre (Divadlo DRAK) in that city before Josef Krofta became the theatre’s artistic director in 1971.

She later joined the Prague Theatre Institute (Divadelní ústav) as a specialist in contemporary Czech puppet theatre, where she prepared publications on the nation’s puppetry. She is the principal author of articles representing Czech puppet theatre in UNIMA’s online trilingual World Encyclopedia of Puppetry Arts (see: wepa.unima.org), and was the editor of the first edition of the publication, Czech Puppet Theatre Yesterday and Today. In 2019, she authored the book, UNI…WHAT? UNIMA, dedicated to the founding and subsequent history of UNIMA. She also developed the concept of creating exhibitions of Czech puppet theatre, both at home and abroad, the most important being “Strings attached: the Living Tradition of Czech Puppets”, which opened at the Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio, the United States, in 2013.

Immediately after her studies, Nina Malíková became a teacher at the DAMU School of Dramatic Arts in the department of puppet theatre and later in the department of alternative theatre and puppetry (Katedra alternativního a loutkového divadla), where she has since been a lecturer in the history of Czech and world puppet theatre. From 1998 to 2016 she was a literary assistant at the Lampion Puppet Theatre (Divadlo Lampion) in Kladno, Central Bohemia. As a lecturer on Czech puppet theatre, she has participated in many international workshops and seminars in Europe (France, Belgium, Germany, Spain) and other countries (including Canada and South Korea).

Her scholarly contributions to theatre magazines, not only in the field of puppet theatre, continues to this day, both in the Czech Republic and abroad, in particular, with the magazine Loutkář (The Puppeteer), of which she was its editor and later the publication’s editor-in-chief (1993-2015). Nina Malíková translates plays and professional literature from French into Czech (for example, Charles Magnin – History of Puppet Theatre in Europe, 2005, 2010).

Nina Malíková continues the work of her father, Jan Malík, renowned Czech author, dramaturge, theoretician, director of plays for the puppet theatre, and long-time General Secretary of UNIMA, whose contribution to the field of puppet theatre history, to theatre criticism and journalism, as well as his organisational vision for both UNIMA and the management and development of contemporary Czech puppet theatre, is significant and influential.