About

Ray is an award-winning transdisciplinary performance artist, writer, educator and coach (RD1st accredited). Creating unique, genre-defying work through collaboration and resistance to traditional form, Ray’s practice exists at the boundaries of live art, activism and immersive experience. Examining race, queerness, climate justice and neurodiversity, Ray’s creative work holds space for those who face intersecting systemic barriers, celebrating and championing these identities. Their coaching practice, The Underestimated, continues this goal through empowering other creatives who are often left behind by institutions.

Ray’s recent work includes the critically acclaimed OUT, which toured internationally to Vancouver, Toronto and Belgium following a UK tour culminating at Sadler’s Wells; The Goodstock Centre for Rejuvenation, a multi-space installation commissioned by UCL, which responds to eugenics using humour and restorative practice; and BODIES, an immersive swimming-pool-based installation exploring human relationships with water, discovery and rest. They are currently working on Siblings of the Yam, a creative step into moving image and film made in collaboration with Afro-Mexican creative Tamara Ibarra. Supported by an Unlimited International Partner Award. Inspired by bell hooks, the work uses an Afrofuturist lens to explore ancestral connections to nature, generational knowledge and grief.  Ray is also in the early stages of a new commission for Sadler’s Wells, inspired by the sounds of Lovers Rock.

Committed to sharing their experience and knowledge to empower others, in addition to their coaching, Ray maintains an ongoing practice in teaching at institutions including Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Goldsmiths University, London Contemporary Dance School, University of Warwick and University of Roehampton, as well as speaking at events and panels around the UK, sharing their expertise on topics including anti-racism, accessibility and sustainability in the arts. Ray is also a member of the Artists Advisory Board for the Marlborough Theatre.

Ray’s writing includes commissions for The Royal Court, Music Theatre Wales and Brighton Festival. They were selected as members of the Royal Court Writer’s Group and the BBC Writer’s Room, and their work has been published in collections such as Writing Queer Performance by Finnian Tweed and Women in Performance by Sarah Gorman.