When she was 12 years old, she appeared in the movie Madla z cihelny (Brickmaker's daughter, 1933) alongside her sister who played the principal role.

She played a leading role in the movie Čekanky (Ladies in Waiting, 1940) about an aging count who forbids his female staff to marry.

After Germany lost the war in 1945, her sister Lída Baarová (mistress of Joseph Goebbels) was imprisoned, and her mother died during the interrogation by the Czech retribution tribunal.

[1] The story of Zorka Janů was told by Adam Georgiev in his 1998 book Deník sestry Lídy Baarové (Diary of Lída Baarová's Sister).

Janů was portrayed by Anna Fialová in The Devil's Mistress, a 2016 Czech film about Lída Baarová's acting career and affair with Goebbels.