Rachel O’Riordan is Artistic Director and joint CEO of the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre where she launched her critically acclaimed debut season in Autumn 2019 with a triumphant adaptation of A Doll’s House by Tanika Gupta. She most recently directed Lucy Kirkwood’s The Children at the Lyric, starring Meera Syal, End, by David Eldridge at the National Theatre, starring Saskia Reeves and Clive Owen, and Romeo & Julie, by Gary Owen, at the National Theatre and Sherman, which received five star reviews and is currently in development for a film adaptation. She also directed the sold-out remount of Iphigenia in Splott at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre in Autumn 2022, which was featured as one of The Guardian’s 50 best theatre shows of the 21st century and was Number 1 in The Guardian’s Top 10 Theatre Productions of 2022.

At the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, she co-directed the Lyric’s 2020 summer reopening production Out West.  Other Lyric shows include Love, Love, Love by Mike Bartlett, in the 10 year anniversary revival; Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane with Chichester Festival Theatre; and critically-acclaimed revivals of Brian Friel’s Faith Healer and Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good.  

Previously, she was Artistic Director and CEO of Sherman Theatre, Wales from 2014 and transformed the venue which won The Stage’s prestigious Regional Theatre of the Year Award in 2018. Directing credits include the Olivier Award-winning Killology, Bird and Iphigenia in Splott. She was Artistic Director of Perth Theatre, Scotland between 2011 and 2014 and won The Critics’ Award for Theatre in Scotland for Best Director and Best Ensemble for The Seafarer by Conor McPherson. From 2002 to 2011, she co-founded and ran Ransom Productions in Northern Ireland. She has been named as one of the most influential people in UK Theatre in The Stage 100. Published work includes Women in Irish Theatre.