17 Facts About Jude Kelly

Jude Kelly is a director of the WOW Foundation, which organises the annual Women of the World Festival, founded in 2010 by Kelly.

Jude Kelly was born in Liverpool, and her love of theatre dates back to her childhood there, where she would put on plays in her backyard with the neighbours' children: "I've always had a passion for telling a story," she has said.

Jude Kelly attended Calder High School for Girls until she was 13, when it became part of Quarry Bank Comprehensive School, where she was taught by John Lennon's old headmaster, William Pobjoy, who encouraged his pupils to be creative.

Jude Kelly founded Solent People's Theatre, a touring company, in 1976, and was artistic director of the Battersea Arts Centre from 1980 to 1985.

Jude Kelly became the founding director of the West Yorkshire Playhouse from 1990 to 2002, where as artistic director and then CEO she established it as an acknowledged centre for excellence.

Jude Kelly has directed more than 100 productions, including for Chichester Festival Theatre, the English National Opera, the Chatelet in Paris, France, and London's West End.

Jude Kelly left the West Yorkshire Playhouse in 2002 to found Metal Culture, providing artistic laboratory spaces in Liverpool, Peterborough and Southend, funded by Arts Council England and local authorities.

Jude Kelly directed Sir Ian McKellen in The Seagull and The Tempest, Patrick Stewart in Johnson Over Jordan and Othello, Dawn French in When We Are Married, and the English National Opera in The Elixir of Love and On the Town, which was the ENO's most successful production at the time, Carmen Jones, and The Wizard of Oz at the refurbished Royal Festival Hall.

In December 2024, St Catherine's College, Oxford, announced that Jude Kelly would be the next Master of the College from April 2025.

Alongside Olga Miler Christen, Jude Kelly founded Smartpurse Limited in 2019 in order to provide financial advice and education to women.

Jude Kelly married their father, the actor, writer and director Michael Bird in 1993.

In 2006, Jude Kelly was named number 8 in "Theatreland's top 100 players" by The Independent newspaper.

Jude Kelly has represented Britain within UNESCO on cultural matters, served on the Arts Advisory Committee for the Royal Society of Arts, and jointly chaired with Lord Puttnam the Curricula Advisory Committee on Arts and Creativity.

Jude Kelly is chair of Metal, a member of the London Cultural Consortium, and a member of the Dishaa Advisory Group.

Jude Kelly is Chair of the Trustees for World Book Night and was on the Cultural Olympiad Board that was responsible for delivering the creative, cultural and educational aspects of London's Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012.

Jude Kelly is visiting professor at Kingston University, Leeds University and at Shanghai Performing Arts School.

In October 2012, Jude Kelly was presented with a BASCA Gold Badge Award in recognition of her services to music.