Zishan Ugurlu has worked extensively both in New York and abroad as a theater artist since 1995. She is a director and performer-in-residence at La MaMa Theater. Zishan was invited to New York City by Ellen Stewart (former artistic director of La MaMa Theater) to be a member of Great Jones Repertory Company. She holds two MFA degrees: one from Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul, Turkey, where she completed a directing thesis in “Staging Concepts of Raymond Queneau’s Exercices De Style”; Columbia University, completing an Acting Thesis Production, a devised theater piece "Godard-Distant and Right ". Zishan holds a Ph.D. from Ankara University, exploring “The Importance of the Play as a Cultural Concept”.

She has been teaching at Lang College The New School University for Liberal Arts since 2004.

Zishan's directing career has spanned over more than two decades across several countries. She recently directed The Marriage (September 2024) by Witold Gombrowicz and invited to The International Gombrowicz Festival in Radom - Jan Kochanowski Powszechny Theater and she received the "Best Director Award" in October 2024. The Marriage was performed at Dramatyczny Theatre in Warsaw and received an outstanding review. The Medea (April 2024) based on the text of Andrei Serban’s Greek/Latin text by Euripides and Seneca, a composition by Elizabeth Swados (1972). This newly adapted and reimagined version is set on the global refugee crisis (La MaMa). Fragments, Lists, and Lacunae (2020) written by Alexandra Chasin, featuring philosopher Judith Butler as a performer (New York Live Arts). She is the founding artistic director of Actors without Borders-ITONY. Her directing credits encompass a variety of plays. Her work exists independently from the commercial sector, and it has had and continues to have, an impact on diverse international audiences. She is recognized for reinterpreting classics and is dedicated to showcasing highly regarded but rarely produced international playwrights.

Zishan's particular affinity and fascination in the genre of Solo Performance has led her to direct a multitude of performances presented at United Solo Festival in New York. She was awarded “Best Direction” for Dream American by Yu Ling Wu and Best Debut Awardfor In the Storm of Pleasure by Daniel Benhamu. Zishan has also directed other solo performances for different venues: The Surrender by Toni Bentley at The Clurman Theater, Oysters, Orgasms, and Obituaries by Raina von Waldenburg (Nominated for New York Innovative Theater Award for Outstanding Solo Performance) at La MaMa and Request Program by F. X. Kroetz at La MaMa. She was selected to have an honored Membership at United Solo Academy in 2015.

Zishan has performed in numerous notable productions with the Great Jones Repertory, including Panorama (2018-2019) directed by Italian theater company Motus (led by Daniela Nicolò and Enrico Casagrande). The production was nominated for an Ubu Award for Best Direction. Panorama was presented in several cities and festivals in Italy and across Europe. She has also acted in The Trojan Women, (Helen) directed by Andrei Serban and composed by Elizabeth Swados; the production toured internationally across Asia and Europe. She played Carmen in Robert Wooduff’s award winning Godard-Distant and Right (2000) which was awarded as The Best Production in the Nanterre Theatre Festival in Paris.

Zishan's significant contributions to prison education and social justice were recognized with the prestigious 2020 Gramsci International Prize for Theater in Prison Award by INTIP—UNESCO. She has also recently been awarded by Mellon Foundation's Periclean Faculty Leaders in the Humanities (2024).

Current FUBiS courses:

• Creating a Solo Performance: Berlin Cabaret/Kabarett (FUBiS Term II 2025)