Trans Creative was launched into the world in 2017. Since then, transgender politics have rarely been out of the news – often meaning one step forward, and two steps back for the trans community. We are seen, but not heard, we make headlines, but don’t get to write the copy. Trans Creative have been countering media negativity through our mission to “Tell our own stories” which is more important now than ever. 

To be trans and have a voice is both rare and vital. Over the last three years we have created important platforms to have these voices heard, from nationwide tours of mind-expanding theatre, to young trans people and artists taking over institutions, to headline-grabbing activism, to my own development as a trans Artistic Director in the UK.

This is just the beginning for us and we are encouraged by our sell-out events and audience response. I believe having more trans presence in the arts creates social change, I have seen its impact grow over the last few years and feel proud to be part of this change.

Kate O’Donnell, Artistic Director, Trans Creative

Our Team

  • Artistic Director

    Kate is a transgender performer, activist and theatre maker. In 2016 she founded Trans Creative arts company with the tagline “telling our own stories”. In 2017 she initiated Manchester's first trans arts festival Trans Vegas giving a platform to 300 trans voices and in 2020 the festival responded to COVID-19 by going digital for the first time and in 2022 is back to a fully live programme. Her theatre work includes; the award-winning “Big Girl’s Blouse”, acclaimed one woman show ‘You've Changed’, playing Feste in Twelfth Night & Electra in Gypsy, both at the Royal Exchange. Kate has directed Transpose at the Barbican two years running and regularly speaks on panels and made guest appearances on the Guilty Feminist podcast at the live shows. In 2018 she was nominated for the Gay Times Arts and Culture Award.

  • Board Member

    Maz is a writer and performer working in the spaces between real and unreal, poetry and theatre, self and other. A founding member of Ink and Curtains, their work is lyrical and imaginative, frequently inspired by folklore and mythology. Outside the arts, they work as finance manager for a charity supporting the LGBTQ+ community across Greater Manchester

  • Board Member

    Lissy is the Executive Director of Mimbre, a female-led contemporary circus company. Before joining Mimbre, Lissy was Director of Services and Interim CEO at Stagetext, the organisation which provides captioning and live speech-to-text services in theatres and cultural venues. Previously Lissy was the co-founder of the Pirate Fairies walkabout and street theatre company, produced for Pandora’s Box children’s theatre company and was an editor of the leading UK feminist website, The F-Word. You can read more about her work at lissylovett.co.uk or find her on Twitter @lissylovett.

  • Board Member

    Zorian is a Curator of Prints at the Victoria & Albert Museum, specialising in 19th and 20th century posters and paper ephemera.

    He has been the co-chair of the V&A LGBTQ Working Group for the past five years and has curated numerous special events and research projects on queer artists in the V&A collections. He is also a consultant curator for the House of European History in Belgium and since 2016 has been a programmer for the British Film Institute’s Flare Festival, the biggest LGBTQ+ film festival in Europe.