Nelson is an award-winning director and performer, writer and educator. He is a four-time Best Director winner and two-time Best Actor winner at the Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards. He is an active player on the Singapore stage for more than three decades, taking on numerous major and leading roles in English and Mandarin productions. A graduate of Goldsmiths College, London (MA in Directing) and National University of Singapore (BA, Hons, Theatre Studies), Nelson was Head of Department for Theatre at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, adjunct lecturer at LASALLE College of the Arts and full-time lecturer of Theatre Studies Programme at the National University of Singapore. He was the Associate Artistic Director of Toy Factory Productions (2003 - 2013), a Resident Artist with The Theatre Practice (2000 - 2002), an Associate Artist with The Substation (2007 - 2009), and a founding member of the ensemble collective A GROUP OF PEOPLE (2008 - 2012).
Nelson is the co-founder and artistic director of Nine Years Theatre (NYT). Within a few years, NYT has grown to become one of the key players in the scene. Through his artistic direction, NYT has managed to not only rejuvenate the Singapore Mandarin theatre scene with their work, but raised awareness of actor training among the artistic community. Nelson has been training regularly in the “Suzuki Method of Actor Training” and “Viewpoints” since 2008. He had studied these methods with the SITI Company in New York and the Suzuki Company of Toga in Japan, and had performed at the Toga Summer Festival.
Photography by Ryan Loi
Last Updated: February 2023