Czech Next Wave

Pavel Fuksa is a highly successful graphic designer, illustrator and creative director. His client list is like a who's who of top international brands and includes such names as Nike, Facebook, Lego and Google.

Prague-born Martha Issová was the female lead in Zátopek, a biopic of running legend Emil Zátopek that was one of the Czech Republic's biggest films of recent years. She is also known for many other screen roles and is a member of the hugely popular theatre company Dejvické divadlo.

Young duo Herrmann & Coufal are the most recent absolute winners of the Grand Designer of the Year award, the Czech Republic's top honour in the field. In recent years Eduard Herrmann and Matěj Coufal have shot to attention with everyday objects such as lamps and coat stands that involve the customer, DIY-style, in their manufacture, as well as pieces for eminent Czech design companies and even street furniture.   

Adam Plachetka is one of the country's most in-demand opera singers. He is the only Czech to have sung at the Met in New York before the age of 30, has been a member of the Vienna State Opera for over a decade and has appeared at many of the globe's other great venues.

Screenwriter Štěpán Hulík shot to attention almost a decade ago when, still in his 20s, he wrote Burning Bush, a big-budget mini-series helmed by no less a name than the great European director Agnieszka Holland. Since then he has notched up further successes and his latest project, Suspicion, is just about to launch at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

Lucie Koldová is one of the Czech Republic's greatest designers and is a two-time overall winner of the Czech Grand Design awards, most recently last year. She is perhaps best-known for her beautiful lights and as well as running her own studio is art director with the top Czech lighting brand Brokis.

Dancer, choreographer and teacher Tereza Ondrová is a leading figure in Czech contemporary dance. Ondrová is a frequent collaborator with both domestic and international artists, working with such names as director Petra Tejnorová, dancers Peter Šavel (with whom she created the acclaimed duet Boys Who Like To Play With Dolls) and Silvia Gribaudi, and conceptual artist Kateřina Šedá.

Jakub Gemrot heads Charles Games, the studio affiliated with Prague's Charles University that produced Attentat 1942, a “WWII game through the eyes of survivors” that won many admirers around the world. Gemrot and his team are hoping to do at least as well with the follow-up Svoboda 1945: Liberation, which is due for release later this year.

Jiří Havelka is one of the Czech Republic's most exciting theatre directors, as well as being an actor, playwright and teacher. In addition Havelka scored a huge critical and commercial success with his debut film Owners, a work that he also performed on stage with the acclaimed theatre company Vosto5.

Czech illustrator and comics artist Lenka Šimečková has established herself as one of the most exciting names in her field over the last decade. Her striking work – frequently characterised by a macabre, dreamlike atmosphere – appears in comics, books and games, and even on tarot cards, and has earned her tens of thousands of social media followers around the globe.

At the age of just 39, Czech conductor Jakub Hrůša is already a major name in classical music, serving as chief conductor of the Bamberg Symphony and principal guest conductor at the Czech Philharmonic in Prague, as well as regularly wielding his baton with many of the world's top orchestras.

Kateřina Tučková is one of the most successful young Czech novelists. Her powerful novel Gerta – focused on the cruel treatment of ethnic Germans in the immediate aftermath of the war – has just been published in English. Another of her works based on extensive historical research is The Žítková Goddesses, a best-selling novel about a group of female healers in the White Carpathians.

Jiří Mádl has been one of the Czech Republic's most recognisable young film stars since the mid-2000s, when he shot to fame with massive teen movies. But Mádl is also an accomplished writer and director, winning plaudits for the sensitive low-budget drama To See the Sea (made when he was still in his mid 20s) and On the Roof, one of the country's films of the year in 2019.

Based in New York since the early 2010s, Marie Tomanová is one of the most successful young Czech photographers. Her biggest impact to date has been with the portrait series Young American, focused on a new generation for whom old gender stereotypes no longer apply, and last year she brought her work to Tokyo and Berlin.

Musician, composer and producer Sára Vondrášková has been one of most distinctive voices on the Czech music scene for the best part of a decade. Recording and performing as Never Sol, she has to date released two powerful albums of atmospheric, synthesiser-based music and recently returned with the single Leon. In addition Vondrášková, who is 31, works regularly with other artists in fields such as fashion and dance and hosts a show on the radio station Vltava.

Marek Šindelka is one of the Czech Republic's leading young authors. Known for acclaimed novels such as Aberrant and Material Fatigue, the 36-year-old has also won top domestic prizes for his poetry and short stories. His broad oeuvre also includes graphic novels, while movie scripts he has penned should reach the big screen in 2021.

Tereza Rosalie Kladošová is one of the Czech Republic's top young fashion designers. Known for eye-catching bright colours and bold, fun cuts, she frequently uses her own materials – including from the waste products of wool manufacturing – to conjure up genuinely one-of-a-kind pieces. She also makes various other items and in her guise as a stylist co-created the look of popular Prague restaurant Eska. Last year the designer, who is in her mid 30s, took the overall prize in the prestigious Czech Grand Design awards.

Despite being only 35, Michal Šimíček heads the Blood Cancer Research Group in Ostrava, a team doing very exciting work in the field of cell therapy. This ground-breaking treatment involves using live immune system cells to target certain kinds of tumors and Šimíček's aim is to create universal cells that could be taken from any donor, so making the treatment way more affordable than it is now.

Albert Černý found fame at a young age when his first band Charlie Straight won three Czech national Anděl music awards following the release of their debut LP. The lively singer-songwriter later formed Lake Malawi; the group's biggest moment to date was representing the Czech Republic in last year's Eurovision Song Contest, where they finished a very creditable 11th. In recent times Černý (31) has also been doing some modelling and TV work.

Czech Next Wave, a regular podcast produced jointly by the Czech Centres network and Radio Prague International, introduces listeners around the world to emerging, exciting and highly talented young Czechs in various areas of the arts and beyond. The first episode will be released in the second half of next week.