A dynamic and self motivated, strategic thinker with an imaginative grasp on organisational development, Julie McNamara has managed two Arts companies: London Disability Arts Forum, where she initiated and co-founded London Disability Film Festival with Caglar Kimyoncu, hosted at the National Film Theatre and Overtones Music Studios, where she served as Chair of Board for seven years.

She has achieved outstanding success over the past five years. Pig Tales was commissioned for Oval House Theatre and Jackson's Lane as part of Xposure Festival of Disability Arts. The production attracted two awards and excellent reviews when it toured internationally. Pig's Sister was then commissioned by Theatre Worksop Edinburgh and Crossings was one of the new commissioned pieces for DaDaFest International 08 Festival this year. She is one of the few individual artists currently receiving regular funding from the Theatre Department of Arts Council England. She is a passionate advocate for unheard voices, her work remains an unashamed celebration of diversity.

"Julie McNamara's work springs from dark places. She moves deftly from bleak landscapes of madness into absurdity, taking her audience by the jugular. Her work is passionately political, edgy and funny. She has enormous poise on-stage, like some rabid chameleon, moving through many guises, she blatantly confronts notions of what it is to be normal."
Bernie de Lord, Mental Heath Commission, NZ

At the time of writing she is writing a new work commissioned by No Strings Attached Theatre of Disability in Adelaide, Australia, to be produced for Feast Festival 08. She now joins us as one of our new Patrons of DaDa Festival Liverpool where she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006.