Emily Ling Williams

Emily directed the Olivier Award nominated A Playlist for the Revolution by AJ Yi. The show was chosen as one of the Stage’s Top 10 London shows of 2023 and Emily won the Stage Debut Award for Best Director. In 2025 Emily worked across shows such as Insane Asylum Seekers, Small Hotel at Bath Theatre Royal with Ralph Fiennes, and No Such Thing As Wolves at the Birmingham Hippodrome. She has also recently directed an adaptation of the best-selling children's book Sam Wu Is NOT Afraid Of Ghosts at Polka Theatre, which was nominated for an Off West End Award for Best Production. This summer she will be directing a new version of Romeo & Juliet by Kwame Owusu at Theatre Royal Stratford East. Other directing credits include Angus Harrison's Polko at Paines Plough’s Roundabout, The Full Works, The Key Workers Cycle by Josh Elliott at the Almeida, text me when you’re home by Zia Ahmed as part of Five Plays at the Young Vic and Wasted by Chanel Fernandes and Kane Feagan at the Lyric Hammersmith. Emily was previously an Origins Artist at Headlong, a Resident Director at the Almeida, a Jerwood Assistant Director at the Young Vic and Trainee Director at Paines Plough. She has also completed the Soho Theatre Writers Lab and has an MSc in International Politics from SOAS.