Josie Rourke was born on 3 September 1976 and is an English theatre and film director.
15 Facts About Josie Rourke
2.
Josie Rourke is a Vice-President of the London Library and was the artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse theatre from 2012 to 2019.
3.
Josie Rourke attended St Mary's RC Primary School, Swinton, St Gilbert's RC Primary School, Winton, St Patrick's RC Secondary School, Eccles, and Eccles College of Further Education.
4.
Josie Rourke was the first person in the history of her school to attend Cambridge University, where she studied English at New Hall, now Murray Edwards College.
5.
Josie Rourke began directing for theatre at Cambridge and, amongst other credits, was the first woman in history to direct the Footlights Pantomime, which was co-written by Footlights President and Vice President Richard Ayoade and John Oliver.
6.
Josie Rourke directed for the Royal Shakespeare Company in the 2005 Gunpowder Season, Believe What You Will by Philip Massinger and, as part of the 2006 Complete Works Festival, King John by William Shakespeare, starring Richard McCabe, Joseph Millson and Tamsin Greig.
7.
In 2007, Josie Rourke was appointed Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre, one of the country's key venues for new plays and playwrights.
8.
Josie Rourke made a Freedom of Information Act request which established that the proposed cut had been made using flawed evidence and data.
9.
The new home for The Bush opened with Sixty-Six Books, a 24-hour performance cycle with 66 writers and 144 actors that Josie Rourke co-directed with a dozen of her peers.
10.
Josie Rourke's projects included Twelfth Night and The Taming of The Shrew for Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Men Should Weep by Ena Lamont Stewart at the National Theatre and Much Ado About Nothing for Sonia Friedman Productions at the Wyndham's Theatre, starring David Tennant and Catherine Tate, the onstage reunion of which won the WhatsOnStage Award for the Theatre Event of the Year.
11.
In 2011, Josie Rourke was appointed Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse, the first woman to hold the role and the first female theatre director to be appointed the artistic director of a major London theatre.
12.
Josie Rourke made her film debut with Working Title's Mary Queen of Scots.
13.
The Nan Movie was eventually released on 18 March 2022, with Josie Rourke receiving an executive producer credit and no director credited.
14.
From 2012 to 2018, Josie Rourke served as a Non-Executive Director of public service broadcaster Channel 4.
15.
Since November 2019, Josie Rourke has been a Vice-President of the London Library, having a particular focus on developing the Library's support for emerging playwrights as part of its wider Emerging Writers Program.