Anica Tomić studied Comparative Literature and Croatian Language and Literature at the University of Zagreb, as well as Theatre Direction and Radio at the Academy of Performing Arts. Scholarships took her to the Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten and Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and she was a Writer in Residence for KulturKontakt Austria in Vienna. In 1995, she founded the amateur theatre group Theater de femmes, one of the most important alternative Croatian theatre groups of the 1990s, which remained active until 2003. She also teaches acting at the Academy in Osijek (AUKOS).

Anica Tomić has directed numerous plays and worked on authors’ projects in Croatia and internationally. She has organised numerous cultural events (European Opera Days, Open Square Day, White Nights, Festival of Lights) and is active in arts education and as a mentor. In her work, she regularly collaborates with the author Jelena Kovačić. She creates rewrites and adaptations of classical works and realises author-led projects focusing on socially marginalised individuals and groups, and the position of women. In her productions, she examines the complex apparatus of repression directed against marginalised groups and the underlying socio-economic and political principles that give rise to frustration, intolerance, fear, xenophobia, violence and misogyny. Furthermore, she is actively involved in the fight for human rights and the rights of women and children. In this context, she founded the #SPASIME initiative, which raises public awareness of the issue of domestic violence. Anica Tomić has received numerous national and international awards for her work, including the Croatian Theatre Award, the Marula Prize, the Mali Marulić Prize, the ASSITEJ Prize, the Golden Firebird Award, the Veljko Maričić Prize, the Grand Prix Italia and the Jurislav Korenić Prize.

For the production Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction, she won the Yellow Frame Award for Sustainable Development, Science, and Education as part of the European project STAGES (Sustainable Theatre Alliance for a Green Environmental Shift). Her most recent production was The Beautiful View by Ödön von Horváth at the Schauspielhaus Graz.