Jude Kelly

Jude Kelly OBE, CBE is Founder and Director of The WOW (Women of the World) Festival. She founded WOW to celebrate the achievements of women and girls and confront global gender injustice. Starting as a three-day festival at London’s Southbank Centre in 2010, where Kelly was Artistic Director for twelve years, the festival now takes place in thirty locations across six continents. In 2018, she established The WOW Foundation, an independent charity dedicated to building the WOW movement as a force for change. Kelly also founded Solent People’s Theatre and was the artistic director of Battersea Arts Centre, West Yorkshire Playhouse and the Southbank Centre. She has directed over 100 theatre and opera productions, is the recipient of two Olivier awards, a BASCA Gold Badge Award for contribution to music and a Southbank Award for opera. Kelly has founded a range of arts institutions and has commissioned and supported the work of thousands of artists across all genres. In 1997, she was awarded an OBE for her services to Theatre and in 2015 she was made a CBE for services to the Arts.