Maya Zbib is a theatre director, performer, writer and co-founder and co-artistic director of Zoukak Theatre Company and Zoukak Studio, Beirut. Her work is process-oriented and is created in cycles of collective research with Zoukak, raising questions that aim to challenge the status quo in Lebanon; dealing with gender and sexuality, religion and power, history, violence… Her performances, including The Music Box, Silk Thread and The Love Project, have been presented at international festivals and venues in the Middle East, Europe, the United States, South America, North and East-Central Africa and South Asia. Zbib is a Chevening/KRSF Alumna (2007), Cultural Leadership International Alumna (2010), fellow of ISPA (2010), protégée of Peter Sellars – Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative (2011), finalist of Gilder/Coigney International Theatre Award (2014 & 2020), message author – World Theatre Day (2018), honored within Cairo’s 27th International Festival for Experimental Theatre (2020). 

Zoukak received the Ibsen Scholarship Award (2012), the Anna Lindh Foundation’s Euromed Dialogue Award for social resilience and creativity (2014), the honorary citizenship of the city of Palermo (2017), the Praemium Imperiale Grant for Young Artists – Japan Arts Association (2017), the Chirac Foundation Award of Culture for Peace (2017) and the Ellen Stewart International Award (2018).