Bio
Ursula Martinez is a London based theatre maker, performer and director. She makes bold, innovative, funny, accessible, disruptive and entertaining live performance, often drawing on autobiography and lived experience to explore wider contemporary issues.
She has performed and directed work in esteemed venues around the world including Sydney Opera House, Skirball (New York), Téâtre de la Ville (Paris), Kampnagel (Hamburg) Madrid’s Matadero & Teatro Abadia, and London’s SouthBank.
Raised in the UK with a Spanish mother and English father, she earned her chops performing solo on the London cabaret scene before creating her first theatre show A Family Outing (1998). This groundbreaking autobiographical piece starring herself and her parents, toured internationally for two years, including Belvoir Street Theatre (Sydney), Södra Teatern (Stockholm) and Trafo House Of Contemporary Arts (Budapest), establishing Martinez internationally as an important British contemporary theatre maker.
Martinez created two more autobiographical shows, which together with her first, were presented at London’s prestigious Barbican as a retrospective trilogy entitled ‘Me, Me, Me!’ (2006).
‘My Stories, Your Emails’ (2009) was commissioned by Barbican and toured internationally for nearly ten years, including La Fondation Cartier (Paris), Sydney Opera House, Powerhouse (Brisbane), Brighton International Festival and New Zealand Festival of the Arts.
‘Free Admission’ (2015) was commissioned by South Bank in London and presented at Push Festival (Vancouver), Arts Centre (Melbourne), El Matadero (Madrid) Project Arts Centre (Dublin) and Soho Theatre (London), to name a few.
In 2017 Martinez co-created ‘Wild Bore’ with Adrienne Truscott (USA) and Zoe Coombs Marr (Australia) plus special guest Krishna Istha. Winner of the Greenroom Award for Best Ensemble, it is an audacious and hilarious critique of the critique of theatre. It premiered at Melbourne International Comedy Festival followed by performances at Carriageworks (Sydney), Skirball Centre (New York), Soho Theatre (London) and Sophiensaele (Berlin).
In 2019, Martinez was Artist in Residence at Perth Festival, Australia, where she premiered A Family Outing – 20 Years On. Commissioned by Barbican, S!CK Festival and Perth, it was a celebratory reinterpretation of her very first production and was performed by Martinez and her 84 year old Mother, Milagros, who was living with dementia. International touring was cut short from COVID and Milagros passed away in 2022.
After 20 years making and performing theatre, cabaret and live art, Martinez naturally fell into directing. Working with artists who also seek to break with conventional narratives, Martinez has directed many internationally acclaimed and award-winning shows.
These include:
‘Batshit’ (2022), an Australian production from artist Leah Shelton investigating the systemic injustices within mental health, through the true story of her Grandmother. She show has received 6 awards in Australia and 3 in the UK including the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe First (2024).
Laura Murphy’s multi award-winning circus/theatre fusion ‘A Spectacle of Herself’ (2022) .
A trilogy of work with one of UK’s most provocative performance artists, Lucy McCormick: “Lucy and Friends’ (2023) ‘Post Popular’ (2019) and ‘Triple Threat’ (2017),
Casting Lear, (2024) a co-direction with Spanish theatre maker Andrea Jimenez, which won the Max Award (2025) for Best Theatre Show.
Martinez co-created C’est Barbican with London based collective Duckie, which won an Oliver Award (2004) for Best Entertainment.
She is an original cast member of the international trailblazing cabaret show La Clique, which also won an Olivier Award for Best Entertainment in 2009.
In 2006 a recording of a live performance of her infamous cabaret act Hanky Panky went viral, before we even knew what that meant. Since then the act has been viewed by millions and millions of people around the world. For that reason, despite all her theatrical accolades, Martinez is probably most well known for making handkerchiefs disappear and pulling them out of her vagina!