about

Nel is an award-winning theatre director and writer living in London. She makes bold, collaborative, engaging work that invites its audience to play. She particularly enjoys working with comedy, live music and making beautiful work for young audiences.

Nel leads Bucket Club, a produced company at Farnham Maltings whose work she directs and often writes. Shows include Lorraine & Alan, Fossils, Launch Party, Catch That Beast! , Five Children and It and most recently The Christmas Lobster, the Christmas show for Farnham Maltings. Bucket Club shows have won the Brighton Fringe Award for Excellence and a Musical Theatre Network Award for Innovation and toured the UK and to Brits Off Broadway.

Nel frequently collaborates with the HandleBards, making outdoor, small-cast, clownish Shakespeare productions which tour by bike. In 2025 she directed their first midscale indoor show, The Tempest at Shakespeare North. She’s also directed new work by writers and makers including Claire Gaydon, Marietta Kirkbride and Sabrina Mahfouz.

Nel has been a BBC Performing Arts Fund Fellow, where she was Director in Residence at Tobacco Factory Theatres for a year. She’s worked as an assistant director at the Young Vic and the RSC and was a Resident Director at the Almeida.

Nel has taught and directed at drama schools like Mountview, Bristol Old Vic, Drama Studio, Bath Spa and Central School of Speech and Drama. She’s a National Theatre Connections director and has facilitated with the Old Vic.

Current projects in development include a children’s opera with English Touring Opera, an early years show with the Unicorn Theatre and Arthur, a new main house show for Polka Theatre and the Egg.

Nel is represented by Alexandra Cory at Berlin Associates.