Jenny Sealey (2017)

Jenny Sealey is the CEO and Artistic Director at Graeae Theatre in London, UK, the country’s flagship disabled-led theatre company. She has been the Artistic Director at the theatre since 1997. Her work has involved the development of a new theatrical language, experimenting with bilingual British Sign Language (BSL) and English, prerecorded BSL, creative captioning, and in-ear live audio description. After developing a hearing impairment as a child, Jenny was encouraged to pursue dancing. She studied dance and choreography at university and later became a founding member of the Common Ground Sign Dance Company and the London Disability Arts Forum. In 2009, she was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen’s Honours and became an Artistic Advisor to the Unlimited 2012 Festival. She co-directed the London 2012 Paralympic Opening Ceremony. She has won the Liberty Rights Arts Award and, since 2012, has been awarded an honorary doctorate in Drama from Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, in Performing Arts from Middlesex University and held a Fellowship at Central School of Speech and Drama and Rose Bruford College.