Sarah Ellis MBE - Director, CoSTAR National Lab

Sarah Ellis MBE was appointed Director of CoSTAR National Lab in July 2026. She joins at a defining moment for CoSTAR and the UK's creative industries, marked by the imminent opening of its flagship AI-enabled converged production facility at Pinewood Studios in Autumn 2026. This will become a national centre for research, innovation and industry collaboration in converged media production.

Sarah has extensive experience in immersive storytelling, audience engagement and creative technology. Most recently Sarah was Director of Creative Innovation at the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), where she worked for over 14 years.

During her time at the RSC, she was Project Director for the Audience of the Future Live Performance Demonstrator, funded by Innovate UK, she led a consortium of arts organisations, research partners and technology companies to explore the future of performances and real-time immersive experiences. That resulted in Dream - a virtual performance to a large scale online global audience during the pandemic. She led a cross-industry collaboration with the RSC, Intel and the Imaginarium Studios for the RSC's 2016 production of The Tempest. She executive produced Lili, a convergence of theatre and gaming adaptation of Macbeth by INK Stories in collaboration with the RSC and Alambic Productions, becoming the first ever video game exhibited at Cannes Film Festival in 2025.

Widely regarded as a leading voice in the creative industries, Sarah currently serves as member of DCMS' College of Experts, is a Principle Investigator for an AHRC funded Future of Performance Institute feasibility study and is an Industry Champion for the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, which helps inform academic research to lead to better policies for the sector. Her mentorship and advisory roles include being a board member of Figurative, an independent charity finding imaginative ways to grow the cultural and creative sectors’ financial resilience and social impact and is an advisory council member for the Academy of Live Technology based at Production Park.