Jo is a director, writer and audio director. After a degree in English literature at Oxford University she spent time directing and teaching in the West Bank and India, before completing an MSc in Violence, Conflict and Development. Jo started her career as a director while working as a section editor at openDemocracy, later training with the Jasmin Vardimon company, Odin Teatret and on the National Theatre Directors’ Course.

Jo’s work in theatre includes Inua Ellams’ Antigone at Regents Park Open Air Theatre, co-directed with Max Webster, Deepika Arwind’s political horror Phantasmagoria, and multiple works with award-winning writer Jay Bernard.

She developed an early specialism in working with non-professional performers, creating shows in Mumbai’s Dharavi slum, with Peckham Shed and community companies at the Almeida and Kiln.

Her international work includes What’s Far Is Near, with Seenaryo, Wehna Kaman Hanshoof/ We Too Shall See with Orient Productions in Cairo and Milk Presents in London, and workshops in the DRC, Afghanistan, Palestine and India.

In 2021 Jo co-founded Graphite + Diamond with carpenter Gary Holness, producing live shows and experiences in the heart of communities, and teaching the hard technical skills needed to bring creative ideas to life. Based in Mitcham, South London, G+D tour work in a caravan that opens up into a thrust stage.