A native of
Bucharest, he graduated the
Mihai Viteazul High School in 1975 and
Politehnica University in 1981, majoring in
automation engineering. Popescu began writing fiction during the
communist regime, focusing on his journalistic career after the
Romanian Revolution of 1989. His first publication was 1984 in the
Echinox literary magazine of
Cluj-Napoca with the SF story
Grădina de cenușă ("The Ash Garden"). Popescu's work was subsequently featured in most SF anthologies, almanacs and magazines before 1990, and he was twice a laureate of the ROMCON Awards (1985, 1986). He received the
Eurocon Award for the collection of short stories
Planetarium. After 1990, he confined his SF activity to translating and editing the works of others. Popescu translated
Stanisław Lem's novels
Manuscript Found in a Bathtub,
Return from the Stars, as well as
Norman Spinrad's
Bug Jack Barron (in collaboration with Dan Mihai Pavelescu). As an editor of SF literature, he published
Dănuț Ungureanu's novel
Marilyn Monroe on a Closed Curve (1993),
Dan Merișca's
Revolt in Labyrinth (1996), and the SF anthology
The Empire of the Crooked Mirrors (1993). team, 1993 Between 1990 and 2005, Popescu was the editor-in-chief of
Adevărul newspaper. In disagreement with the management, he and 81 journalists resigned from the paper and, together with
Mircea Dinescu, started their own publication,
Gândul, however Mircea Dinescu resigned in January 2008. Together with
Emil Hurezeanu he was also a co-host of the TV two-man political talk show
Cap și Pajură (Heads and Tails) broadcast on
Realitatea TV. Popescu is a film analyst, with a Ph.D. in cinematography from the
Caragiale National University of Theatre and Film in Bucharest, where he has been teaching a course on
Manipulation and Propaganda Techniques in Movie and Television. In May 2009, Cristian Tudor Popescu was awarded the title of Bologna Professor, having been elected by the students of Caragiale National University of Theatre and Film, Bucharest. Since 2006, Popescu is the host of the TV show
CineTePrinde, broadcast each Saturday, starting from 10 PM, on
Pro Cinema, where he comments a movie, which is given afterwards, from a critical point of view. He is member of
UCIN and
Writers' Union of Romania. He was until 2022 a political commentator at the Romanian private TV station
Digi 24. A fact that has become widely known in the last years is that CTP is an accomplished tennis player having won numerous national tournaments in the 55+ senior category competing against as many as 140 contestants at an event. Beside playing tennis, he is a public tennis commentator for various Romanian private TV stations including, most notably,
Digi Sport. In May 2025, Popescu criticised the decision of the
Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) to restrict public access to asset and interest declarations – including information about spouses' property and income – describing it as a threat to national security and
anti-corruption agenda of
Nicușor Dan's
presidency. ==Published volumes==