Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh

Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh is the inaugural Artistic Doctoral Researcher of Opera Librettist Practice Based at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, 2021-2027. Her recent opera portfolio includes Royal Opera House, Aldeburgh Festival Britten Pears Arts, Birmingham Opera Company, Performance Arts Lab and National Youth Choir. She was the founder and artistic director (CEO) of ZENDEH, a former Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation.

Nazli was born in the northern Iranian city of Tabriz, and came to the UK with her parents when she was very young. Her father was an academic, and they settled in Edinburgh, where he was working. Her mother's sweet shop was a firm favourite opposite the Royal Lyceum Theatre. She began work as an Arts Council England trainee director at Leicester Haymarket Theatre, was Staff Director at Derby Playhouse and then Associate Director at the Theatre Workshop Edinburgh. In 2004, she founded the theatre company ZENDEH – the name means "alive" in Persian.

She quotes her influences on her creative practise to include international theatre, politics of the Middle East, sciences, and stories from the silk routes. These can be seen as a direct influence on her creative directing and productions developed with the Zendeh theatre company.