BIO

Ursula Martinez is a London based theatre maker.

She studied French and Theatre at Lancaster University.

In the mid 90’s she began performing solo on the London club/cabaret scene, and very quickly made a name for herself.

In 1998, with collaborator Mark Whitelaw, she created her first theatre show A Family Outing, an autobiographical theatre piece starring herself and her parents, which received rave reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Martinez and Whitelaw produced two more autobiographical shows, which together with A Family Outing, formed a trilogy entitled ‘Me, Me, Me!’, which was presented at Barbican B.I.T.E 2006.

Other solo shows include My Stories, Your Emails, co-commissied by Barbican and IQUN, and Free Admission, co-commissioned by Southbank, London and Firece Festival, Birmingham.

In 2017 she co-created Wild Bore, an international collaboration with Adrienned Truscott (US) and Zoe Coombs Marr (Australia), commissioned by the Malthouse in Melbourne.

In 2019 she created A Family Outing – 20 Years On, a celebratory reimagining of her first theatre show, commissioned by Perth Festival (Australia), SICK! (Manchester) and Barbican. It was created with long-term collaborator Mark Whitelaw and was performed by Martinez and her 84 year old Mother, Milagros.

Martinez is an original cast member of the Olivier Award-winning circus  phenomena La Clique / La Soirée. She is also an associate artist with progressive performance purveyors Duckie, with whom she created the smash-hit Olivier Award winning show C’est Duckie!

Martinez also works as a freelance theatre director. She has directed 10 shows nationally and internationally, including 3 smash-hit shows from performance provocateur Lucy McCormick (UK) and 2 from Australia’s award-winning Leah Shelton.

For all her theatrical accolades, Martinez is probably most well known for pulling hankies out of her vagina!