Pooja Ghai

Board Member

Pooja Ghai is an award-winning theatre practitioner with over twenty years of experience. She started out as an actor but has been working as a Director for many years, including at Theatre Royal Stratford East, Shakespeare’s Globe, Kiln Theatre, Tamasha, Soho Theatre, Kali Theatre and Manchester Royal Exchange. From 2015 to 2018 she was the Associate Director at Theatre Royal Stratford East.

Pooja champions the female voice, the migrant’s story, the refugee’s story, the colonial and post-colonial histories that we all share. She is also passionate about new writing and the stories that contemporary playwrights tell to reflect our times. She has been a judge on playwrighting awards and is versed in nurturing young writers through a process of constructive criticism and collaboration. In addition to her experience of talent development, she brings invaluable experience of creative production, commissioning, programming, artistic budget management and stakeholder engagement to Pop Up’s Board. She is also a trustee for Artistic Directors of the Future (ADF).