DEMI NANDHRA
Demi Nandhra is a writer, director and performance artist based in the Midlands, working across performance, socially engaged practice, screen and theatre.
“Nandhra’s work is rigorous, disarming and quietly revolutionary.”
About
Described by critics as “a necessary artistic intervention” (The Guardian) and praised for its “scalpel-sharp political precision” (Exeunt Magazine), Demi’s work is known for holding rage and tenderness side by side, with an approach that is both deeply personal and structurally critical.
Her practice is rooted in domestic interiors and emotional terrains, centring feminine and autobiographical experience. She is interested in how private spaces and inner lives can reveal wider social, political and cultural conditions, and how close attention to the self can speak to collective experience.
Her debut show and Edinburgh Fringe debut, LIFE IS NO LAUGHING MATTER, premiered at Summerhall to critical acclaim. The production toured nationally and internationally, winning a Lustrum Award and receiving nominations for both the Total Theatre Award for Emerging Artist and the Mental Health Fringe Award. It was later optioned for television by Firebird Pictures and underwent development including a table read with SKY.
In television, Demi has contributed to writers’ rooms for Everything I Know About Love (BBC / Working Title) and Buddha of Suburbia (Mammoth Screen).
As a director, her credits include WIGS SNATCHED, PERCEPTIONS DESTROYED by Erinn Dhesi, which won a Vault Festival Week 3 Award. Her theatre work includes THE TRAUMA SHOW (Battersea Arts Centre), SICK AND TIRED (Fierce Festival), and OIL AND WATER (Contact Theatre).
Her work has been commissioned and supported by organisations including Battersea Arts Centre, In Good Company, Wellcome Collection, Fierce Festival, Contact Theatre, and Cambridge Junction, and presented across the UK and internationally by partners such as Summerhall, Camden People’s Theatre, Buzzcut Festival, MAC Birmingham, and Sophiensaele Berlin.
She is the recipient of the In Good Company Mid-Career Artist Award and a former Another Route International Fellow.
Selected Works
Commissioned by Battersea Arts Centre, In Good Company (mid-career commission), Cambridge Junction (with support New Ideas Fund) and Contact Theatre, in association with Fierce Festival.
Co-commissioned by Derby Theatre, Attenborough Arts Centre and Nonsuch Studios.
Supported by Unlimited, Arts Depot, Jerwood 1:1 fund, Another Route, Belgrade Theatre, University of Worcester
THE TRAUMA SHOW
OIL AND WATER
Commissioned by Contact Theatre
Supported by Arts Council England
LIFE IS NO LAUGHING MATTER
Developed with Battersea Arts Centre, MAC Birmingham
Optioned By Firebird Pictures
Supported by Arts Council England
SICK AND TIRED
Supported by Fierce Festival and Compass Festival
Supported by Arts Council England