Jude Kelly CBE Biography

Jude Kelly is the Artistic Director of Britain’s largest cultural institution, the South Bank Centre and Chair of Culture, Ceremonies and Education at the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (formerly London 2012). She is an award-winning director of over 40 productions for stage and screen.

In her 26-year career, Jude founded Solent People's Theatre and then Battersea Arts Centre, establishing it as a national venue. In 1985, she joined the York Festival as Artistic Director and then the Royal Shakespeare Company, before becoming the founding director of the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds. As Artistic Director and then CEO of the country’s largest regional theatre, she established the West Yorkshire Playhouse as an acknowledged centre of excellence on a local, national and international scale, developing an ever-expanding policy of access for all. In 1997, she was awarded the OBE for her services to the theatre.

Jude left the West Yorkshire Playhouse in 2002 to found METAL, artistic laboratory spaces in London and Liverpool. METAL provides a platform for creative 'hunches' and ideas can be pursued. It also involves cross-art collaborations at an international level and developing strategic projects to affect the built environment, people, communities and philosophies. Recent clients include Arsenal Regeneration, The London Clinic, Unilever, the Eden Project, Riverside Housing, and Islington Council.

Amongst her many successes as a director, Jude’s production of Singin’ in the Rain transferred twice to the Royal National Theatre and was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Musical Production in 2001. She directed Ian McKellen in The Seagull and The Tempest, Patrick Stewart in Johnson over Jordon and Othello, Dawn French in When We Are Married, and the English National Opera in The Elixir of Love (South Bank Award - Newcomer Opera) and most recently, On the Town, which was the ENO’s most successful production to date. In 2007, On the Town will be revived at the London Coliseum, her production of The Importance of Being Earnest with Ridiculusmus will tour America, and King Cotton, her latest work with writer Jimmy McGovern, producer Ian Brownbill and opera singer Willard White, will open.

Jude is much in demand as a commentator and spokesperson for the arts, often appearing on national television and radio. She has represented Britain within UNESCO on cultural matters, served on the Arts Advisory Committee for Royal Society of Arts, and jointly chaired with Lord Puttnam the Curricula Advisory Committee on Arts and Creativity. She is chair of Metal, chair of Common Purpose International Trust, board member of The British Council, member of the London Cultural Consortium, and Visiting Professor at Kingston University and Leeds University. As Chair of Culture, Ceremonies, and Education at London 2012, Jude was responsible for developing the culture, arts and education strands of London’s successful bid for the Olympics. She continues this role at LOCOG.

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