Kirsty Housley

Director; Writer; Dramaturg

Kirsty Housley is a director, dramaturg and writer who specialises in formally bold new work and collaboration.  

Recent Director credits: Tao of Glass (Improbable/Soho Place, as co director); Cutting the Tightrope (Edinburgh International Festival & Arcola Theatre); Rise (Bradford City of Culture); Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead (Complicité); Jekyll & Hyde (National Theatre tour, 2024 and 2022); Horse (Matthew Herbert, Edinburgh International Festival and Barbican, as co director); Hope (Clean Break, short film), Extinct (Theatre Royal Stratford East, 2021); The Long Goodbye Livestream with Riz Ahmed (MIF/BAM, 2020), Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran (Traverse Theatre, Sundance Film Festival and Under The Radar fest NYC); Mephisto (A Rhapsodie) (Gate Theatre, 2019); The Encounter (Complicité, as co director).

Recent Dramaturgy credits: Public Interest (Commonwealth/ Bradford City of Culture); ECHO (Royal Court/LIFT); Can I Live (Complicite); Misty (Bush and West End); Avalanche (Barbican Theatre)

Kirsty was the recipient of the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award, the Title Pending award for innovation at Northern Stage, and The Stage award for Innovation for The Encounter. Kirsty is under commission to the Royal Shakespeare Company and was one of the Connections 2026 Writers for the National Theatre.