Photo by Sam Bush for the New York Times
Atri Banerjee is a theatre director, sometime film director, and theatre translator based in London who works across classic texts, new writing and devised work.
He received an MFA in Theatre Directing from Birkbeck, University of London, following an undergraduate degree in English and a Master’s in Medieval & Renaissance Literature at the University of Cambridge. He also trained on the National Theatre Directors’ Course.
He was one of two recipients of the 2022-24 Peter Hall Bursary at the National Theatre, and was named as one of The Stage 25 in January 2022: “theatremakers to watch out for in 2022 and beyond.”
In 2019, Atri won The Stage Debut Award and was nominated for the UK Theatre Award for Best Director for his production of Hobson’s Choice at the Royal Exchange Theatre. His production of Scenes from the Climate Era for the Gate Theatre was awarded an OffWestEnd (Offie) Award for Best Production in 2025. In 2021, he made a film of HARM by Phoebe Eclair-Powell for BBC Four.
Atri grew up in Italy and has worked as a translator for organisations including the Royal Court, Fabulamundi and the RSC. His translation of Pier Lorenzo Pisano’s Carbonio (Carbon) was selected for a 2023 honour by Eurodram, the European network for drama in translation. His translations of Carbon and Ubah Cristina Ali Farah’s Antigone Power are included in The Methuen Drama Anthology of Contemporary Italian Plays(2025).
He has also worked extensively as a drama facilitator and teacher, having led courses across acting, directing and design at schools including LAMDA, Guildhall, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He has also lectured at Birkbeck, Cambridge, Oxford and NYU.
Atri is Artistic Lead at the Gate Theatre. He was previously Trainee Director at the Royal Exchange and a Resident Director at the Almeida Theatre. He sits on the Boards of the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, and the Regional Theatre Young Directors’ Scheme.