Slavoj Zizek.

Slavoj Zizek attended Bežigrad Grammar School in Ljubljana, his birthplace on March 21, 1949, then part of Yugoslavia. He later studied at the University of Ljubljana and Paris 8 University, where he immersed himself in Lacanian psychoanalysis and Marxist theory.

Zizek hosted The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema in 2006, applying psychoanalysis to film. In 2012 he hosted The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology, analyzing ideology through popular culture. He appeared as himself in the 2021 feature film Bliss. He also appeared in documentaries including Risk 2017 and Houston, We Have a Problem! 2016. He serves as a professor at the European Graduate School and the Birkbeck Institute for Humanities.

Zizek pronounces his surname Žižek as ZHEE-zhek. He holds professorships at the European Graduate School and the Birkbeck Institute for Humanities, and is a senior researcher at the University of Ljubljana’s institute of sociology. He gives frequent lectures and publishes writings.

Zizek received the Ambassador of Science of the Republic of Slovenia award and the Gold Medal of the Círculo de Bellas Artes. His documentaries The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema and The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology have influenced contemporary film theory. As of 2025, he is among the most cited living philosophers.