Nica Burns CBE is a multi-award winning theatre producer and is consistently ranked as one of the UK’s top five most influential figures in theatre. Artistic Director at the Donmar Warehouse from 1983 to 1989 and Production Director of Really Useful Theatres from 1993 to 2005, she founded Nimax Theatres in 2005 with her business partner Max Weitzenhoffer and is Chief Executive and co-owner of the Palace, Lyric, Apollo, Garrick, Vaudeville and Duchess theatres in the West End.
In October 2022 she ended a twelve-year design and build journey opening @sohoplace, the first new West End theatre in fifty years on Charing Cross Road. She produced and co-produced numerous shows in the theatre’s first four years, gaining nine Olivier Award nominations. @sohoplace is a new model, an art house theatre in the West End with disability and inclusion at its heart.
Awards include Producer of the Year at the 2021 Stage awards, Commendation for Exceptional Theatre Making During Lockdown at the 2021Critics Circle Awards, Evening Standard Special Award for Theatre, Special Award for Services to UK Theatre at the 2021 Whatsonstage Awards. In 2024 she was voted number two in The Stage’s top 100 most influential figures and has remained in the top five. She is a Fellow of University College London. Since 1984 she has been the Director of the UK’s most prestigious live comedy prize, the Edinburgh Comedy Awards.
Nica was made OBE in 2018 and CBE in 2024.