Marija Bergam Ristić was born in Kotor, Montenegro, in 1991, and completed her primary and secondary education in Belgrade. She attended the Third Belgrade Gymnasium, bilingual Italian program, alongside the Lujo Davičo Secondary Ballet School. In 2009, she enrolled in the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, studying under Prof. Biljana Mašić, and received the Mata Milošević Award for Best Acting Student.
She won the Sterija Award for Best Young Actress in 2012 for her role as Milica in Workers Die Singing (Bitef 2012). Her professional theatre career began while still a student, with notable performances including:

• The Devils by F.M. Dostoevsky, directed by Tanja Mandić Rigonat, National Theatre Belgrade, 2012
• Workers Die Singing, directed by Anđelka Nikolić, 2012
• Filumena Marturano by Eduardo De Filippo, directed by Jagoš Marković, 2013
• A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, directed by Radoslav Milenković, National Theatre Belgrade, 2013
• Cities That No Longer Exist, text and direction by Constanza Macras, Bitef Theatre, 2019
• Lost Landscapes, text by Nikola Zavišić, directed by Dunja Jocić, Bitef Theatre, 2021
• In the Jaws of the Bear by David Krug, directed by Svetlana Dimčević, Bitef Theatre, 2021
• Jelena Anžujska, by Jelena Kaigo, directed by Tanja Mandić Rigonat, Budva / Knjaževsko-srpski theatre Kragujevac, 2024
• Spanish Fool (Španska luda), Bitef Theatre, 2025

From October 2019 to April 2024, she worked as a teaching associate in Acting at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, and she has been enrolled in doctoral artistic studies since 2019.
Marija has also appeared in film and television, including:

• The Trap, directed by Srđan Golubović (2007)
• Budva na pjenu od mora, directed by Milan Karadžić (2012)
• Nowhere, directed by Predrag Velinović (2017)
• Shadows over the Balkans, directed by Dragan Bjelogrlić (2018–)
• Military Academy, directed by Dejan Zečević (2018)
• Here Be Dragons, directed by Alistair Brown (2022)
• The Saints, created and produced by Martin Scorsese (2024/2025)

The play “Spanish Fool” represents the artistic component of Marija Bergam Ristić’s doctoral research project at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. The official topic of her doctoral artistic project is:
Spanish Fool: Exploring the actor’s work on a role in dialogue with new technologies – a theatre performance.