LOUISE ORWIN IS AN AWARD-WINNING PERFORMANCE ARTIST, WRITER AND DIRECTOR

Louise makes unruly, alive work. Work that is hard to categorise, that is provocative, political, slippery, and guaranteed to get under your skin.

A multidisciplinary artist working across performance, text, film and movement, her projects are cinematic, provocative, intimate,drenched in pop culture, and often combine rigorous research with obsessive gonzo-style undercover investigations. Described as experimental, visually bold and socially risky, her work has toured internationally to performance spaces, galleries and festivals across the UK, Europe, North America, South America, Asia and beyond.

Louise's work is preoccupied with liveness, the female gaze, and radical feminist theory- recently taking a sharp turn towards social media, the attention economy, and what the future looks like. She focuses on stories that are overlooked and under-represented, working with participants and documentary elements to create spaces that grapple with ambiguity, unknowing, and the stories we tell ourselves.

Alongside her own projects, Louise works as a director and dramaturg with a wide range of practices, artists and companies, including In Bed With My Brother, Paula Varjack, Ginger Johnson, Eloina, Rosa Postlethwaite, Symoné and RWCMD. In 2022 she was commissioned as a writer-director by Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama for their New 22 Season- alongside Roy Williams and Charlie Josephine- premiering at Sherman Theatre Cardiff and Yard Theatre London. Her written work has been published by Oberon and featured in the Metro, HuffPost and the Independent. She has spoken, workshopped and lectured widely, including at Southbank Centre, Guildhall, Goldsmiths, RCSSD, LSBU, Studio XX Montreal, PYT Tokyo and Supersonic Portugal.

CURRENT WORK: FAMEHUNGRY (touring internationally 2024–27) and Opera for a Dying World (in development, premiering 2027).

AWARDS

Flying Solo Award (2015), Ideastap ‘Untapped’ Award (2016), British Council ‘Artist to Watch’ (2017), Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award Finalist (2018), British Council Edinburgh Showcase Artst (2019), Offie Nomination (2019), Barbican OpenLab Artist (2019/20), Choreodrome Artist, The Place London (2023), The Space Digital Commission (2023), Sit Up x List Award (2024), Summerhall Lustrum Award (2024), Arts Council England Digital Innovation and Content Short List (2025)

a bRIEF SENSATIONALISED HISTORY FOR THE UNINITIATED

In 2014, Louise broke the internet when she began making Pretty Ugly, a project exploring teenage girls online identities. After innocently creating YouTube channels for 3 fake teenage alter-egos which were live for a year, Louise found herself unexpectedly having to grapple with catfishes, HOW TO CATCH A PREDATOR style interventions, the MET Police, and suddenly becoming a viral sensation. Louise and the show were featured in press all over the globe, from breakfast TV in Australia and the USA, to Woman’s Hour in the UK, the New York Times, Guardian, Independent etc etc etc. The show which was eventually made alongside some actual teenagers, premiered at Camden People’s Theatre and toured 2014-2016. The full story is available here.

In 2015, Louise won the Flying Solo Award for A Girl and A Gun, a show interrogating women and violence on film (her fave), which starred her and an unprepared male performer every night. On a mission to terrorise as many unsuspecting male performers as possible, the show toured the UK extensively and completed a run of Edinburgh at Summerhall in 2017. It won the Highly Commended Award at Vault Festival in 2018, and was featured widely in press, including that time when an investigative film journalist decided to take on the role of ‘HIM’ and his side of the story was published in the Guardian.

In 2017, Louise created Offie-nominated Oh Yes Oh No, a show about femme sexuality, violence and consent, in collaboration with survivors of sexual violence. It received 4 and 5 star reviews across the board, was selected for the British Council Edinburgh Showcase, completed an international tour throughout 2019, and was featured widely in the press including being interviewed on London Live TV and in a piece she wrote for the Metro.

In 2018, Louise began making CRY CRY KILL KILL as a finalist for the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Prize (which she didn’t win btw). It was her first show made with other performers, was developed on the Barbican’s OpenLab scheme and selected for caravan assembly 2021, and is an indulgent, radical take on rage, hysteria and your favourite horror film- you know the one with the dead girl in it?

From 2020 Louise began working more as a director, dramaturg and writer. As a writer-director, she was commissioned to create REALLY BAD by RWCMD, premiering at Sherman Theatre Cardiff and The Yard London. As a writer, she began working on her first screenplay- which reached the top 3% of the BBC New Writers scheme- and was signed by Berlin Associates.

In 2024, Louise premiered FAMEHUNGRY - a show about TikTok, the apocalypse, and the attention economy, supported largely by The Place London, and a prestigious digital commission from The Space. It completed a smash hit month at Summerhall Edinburgh where it won 2 awards (Sit Up x List Award and Summerhall Lustrum Award) followed by a UK + International Tour in 2024. In 2025 toured to New York for a 3 week run, followed by Manchester, Malta, Denmark, and Mexico’s prestigious Festival Internacional Cervantino. More international dates to be announced soon through 2026-7.

In 2025, Louise began working on Opera for a Dying World- a bloodthirsty live art opera performed by teenage girls, made with composer Jo Paterson and pop musician/librettist Zoee. Premiering 2027. Supported by Spill Festival, HOME, Theaterhaus G7. Louise will be presenting a pitch of the work at caravan assembly in May 2026. More news coming soon.

And this is her fave ever* reviewer quote: 'If you want a night of theatre that made you feel like you just got a blackjack to the back of the head, Louise Orwin’s one person show is it.'

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Louise was also co-founder of Steakhouse Live, an artist-run organisation producing exciting performance festivals making space for exciting live art and performance in the UK; was a femme-wrestler extraordinaire for Femme Feral's THERESAMAYSMACKDOWN; and was co-founder of legendary underground events and immersive arts company LEMONADE AND LAUGHING GAS (with Amy Lord).

You can get in touch with her here 💋

* apart from when she was called ‘fetching’ by The Spectator.