About Naomi
Dr Naomi Paxton BA MDra PhD FRHistS MMC
Naomi is a freelance performer, writer, broadcaster, host, and researcher.
Naomi trained as a performer at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland). After a decade as a professional actor, in 2011 she started a PhD in the Drama department at the University of Manchester. Her doctoral research, completed in 2015, explored the work of the Actresses' Franchise League and the contribution of theatre professionals to the suffrage campaign.
From 2015-2023 her academic jobs included:
Post-Doctoral Research Associate for Poor Theatres, University of Manchester
Cultural Engagement Fellow, School of Advanced Study, University of London
London Hub Convenor, Being Human Festival
Research Assistant for Vote 100, UK Parliament
Public and Cultural Engagement Fellow, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
Naomi is an Associate Honorary Knowledge Exchange Fellow at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London; an Associate Fellow of the School of Advanced Study, University of London; and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. She is also an Associate Artist of feminist production hub Scary Little Girls, and is also part of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion committee for The Magic Circle.
Publications
In 2013 Naomi edited The Methuen Drama Book of Suffrage Plays (Bloomsbury) which launched at a Platform event at the National Theatre entitled Suffragettes on Stage. In 2018 her monograph Stage Rights! The Actresses' Franchise League, Activism and Politics 1908-1958 was published by Manchester University Press and she edited a second collection of suffrage plays with Bloomsbury entitled The Methuen Drama Book of Suffrage Plays: Taking the Stage, which launched at the National Theatre as part of the Courage Everywhere season. She has also written academic book chapters, articles, blogs and more: You can see a complete list of her publications here.
Public Engagement
A confident and creative speaker and presenter, Naomi's extensive public engagement experience includes creating games and educational resources, collaborating with musicians and playwrights to make new work, curating exhibitions at Parliament and the National Theatre, performing and speaking at museums, archives and festivals across the UK, and appearing on radio and tv. She is the regular MC for Museums Showoff and the V&A Museum's Stand Up at the V&A shows, was an AHRC/BBC Radio 3 New Generation Thinkers for 2014-15, and also presents BBC Radio 3's Arts and Ideas programme, Free Thinking and the New Thinking podcast.
Awards and recognition
2019 - Winner, Early Career Research Prize, Theatre And Performance Association (TAPRA)
2019 - Rising Star Engagement Award, British Academy
2019 - Highly Commended, Women's History Network Book Prize
2018 - Shortlisted, Parliamentary Diversity and Inclusion Award, UK Parliament
2014 - BBC Radio 3/AHRC New Generation Thinker
Comedy and cabaret
As well as MC-ing nights like Museums Showoff and the V&A Museum's Carry on Curating as herself, Naomi performs professionally in comedy, cabaret, magic and variety shows as her character Ada Campe.
In 2018 she won the prestigious Hackney Empire New Act of the Year Show (NATYS), and the Leicester Square Theatre Old Comedian of the Year competition. In 2019 Ada Campe won the The Stand Comedy Club's Good Egg Award, and was shortlisted for the BBC New Comedy Award, the Chortle Awards, and the Funny Women awards. In 2023 Ada was nominated as Best Newcomer in the UK Pantomime Association's Pantomime Awards.
See more about Ada Campe here
You can follow Naomi on Bluesky, Threads and Instagram @naomi.paxton
and follow Ada Campe on TikTok, Threads, and on Instagram @ada.campe
As well as MC-ing nights like Museums Showoff and the V&A Museum's Carry on Curating as herself, Naomi performs professionally in comedy, cabaret, magic and variety shows as her character Ada Campe.
In 2018 she won the prestigious Hackney Empire New Act of the Year Show (NATYS), and the Leicester Square Theatre Old Comedian of the Year competition. In 2019 Ada Campe won the The Stand Comedy Club's Good Egg Award, and was shortlisted for the BBC New Comedy Award, the Chortle Awards, and the Funny Women awards. In 2023 Ada was nominated as Best Newcomer in the UK Pantomime Association's Pantomime Awards.
See more about Ada Campe here
You can follow Naomi on Bluesky, Threads and Instagram @naomi.paxton
and follow Ada Campe on TikTok, Threads, and on Instagram @ada.campe
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About Naomi: ACTING
Photo by Steve Best, 2023
Naomi trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland). She has worked professionally as an actor since 1999 and has appeared in the West End and on tour in the UK and Internationally.
Naomi is represented by The Galton Agency for acting and commercial work
Click here to see her Acting CV (Spotlight link)
About Naomi: RESEARCH
Naomi completed her doctoral thesis: Re-evaluating the Actresses Franchise League: actresses, politics and activism from 1908-1958 in the Drama Department of the University of Manchester in 2015. Her supervisor was Professor Maggie B. Gale.
Her research interests include:
- Performative presentations of feminism and political activism, particularly in the women's suffrage movement
- The involvement of theatre professionals in the suffrage movement
- Networks of suffragist and feminist activists in the first half of the twentieth century
- Cultural histories of political and feminist theatre
About Naomi: PRODUCTION, EXHIBITIONS and games
Naomi is an excellent communicator with highly developed creative, production and curatorial skills.
Commissions and productions
Naomi produced Knickerbocker Glories, a triple bill of Suffrage plays that ran at the Union Theatre in London in June 2010, and has co-produced three Living Literature Walks with feminist production hub Scary Little Girls: Stage Rights! A Living Literature Walk (2013 and 2016); A Particular Theatre: Shakespeare, Suffragists and Soldiers (2016); and Women and War: the West End and the Western Front (2017). A Particular Theatre and Women and War were both produced as part of and with support from the Being Human festival.
In 2018 Naomi was commissioned to create a special interactive performance for the launch of the University of London's Leading Women programme, and for the Senate House Open House London in 2018.
In 2021 Naomi was commissioned by Spare Tyre Theatre for their Statues for the Unforgotten project. She created two videos - one about ventriloquist Terri Rogers, and one about Mrs Salmon's Waxworks.
In 2023 Naomi in collaboration with Scary Little Girls and Dr Kat Jungnickel was commissioned by Theatre and Circus at Glastonbury Festival to create Pockets of Power! for the outdoor and indoor cabaret stages
Exhibitions
Curator, What Difference Did the War Make? World War One and Votes for Women
Westminster Hall and Portcullis House
UK Parliament Vote 100 project, 2018
Curator, Dramatic Progress: Votes for Women and the Edwardian Stage
National Theatre, October 2018-January 2019
Games
Embrace the Base! co-operative board game, Greenham Women Everywhere project, 2021
Suffra-Greats! card game in collaboration with Clavis and Claustra, 2018
Read more about that here
The Race to Equal Votes tablecloth board game, UK Parliament Equaliteas project, 2017
Read more about the UK Vote 100 outputs here
Commissions and productions
Naomi produced Knickerbocker Glories, a triple bill of Suffrage plays that ran at the Union Theatre in London in June 2010, and has co-produced three Living Literature Walks with feminist production hub Scary Little Girls: Stage Rights! A Living Literature Walk (2013 and 2016); A Particular Theatre: Shakespeare, Suffragists and Soldiers (2016); and Women and War: the West End and the Western Front (2017). A Particular Theatre and Women and War were both produced as part of and with support from the Being Human festival.
In 2018 Naomi was commissioned to create a special interactive performance for the launch of the University of London's Leading Women programme, and for the Senate House Open House London in 2018.
In 2021 Naomi was commissioned by Spare Tyre Theatre for their Statues for the Unforgotten project. She created two videos - one about ventriloquist Terri Rogers, and one about Mrs Salmon's Waxworks.
In 2023 Naomi in collaboration with Scary Little Girls and Dr Kat Jungnickel was commissioned by Theatre and Circus at Glastonbury Festival to create Pockets of Power! for the outdoor and indoor cabaret stages
Exhibitions
Curator, What Difference Did the War Make? World War One and Votes for Women
Westminster Hall and Portcullis House
UK Parliament Vote 100 project, 2018
Curator, Dramatic Progress: Votes for Women and the Edwardian Stage
National Theatre, October 2018-January 2019
Games
Embrace the Base! co-operative board game, Greenham Women Everywhere project, 2021
Suffra-Greats! card game in collaboration with Clavis and Claustra, 2018
Read more about that here
The Race to Equal Votes tablecloth board game, UK Parliament Equaliteas project, 2017
Read more about the UK Vote 100 outputs here
About Naomi: EMPLOYMENT
Naomi has extensive experience in professional theatre - before and during her doctoral studies she worked in London's West End on over 30 plays, musicals, operas and events both front and back of house.
From October 2018 to July 2023 Naomi was Knowledge Exchange Fellow and then Public and Cultural Engagement Fellow at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London.
From April 2017-April 2018 Naomi was the Research Assistant at Parliament on a joint AHRC funded project between Professor Krista Cowman at the University of Lincoln, Dr Angela Smith at the University of Plymouth, and UK Parliament Vote 100.
What difference did the war make? World War One and Votes for Women featured public events and workshops in Plymouth, Lincoln and London, and in January 2018 Naomi created an exhibition in Parliament to celebrate the centenary of the granting of the limited franchise to women.
To see the online exhibition, click here
To find out more about Vote 100, click here
What difference did the war make? World War One and Votes for Women featured public events and workshops in Plymouth, Lincoln and London, and in January 2018 Naomi created an exhibition in Parliament to celebrate the centenary of the granting of the limited franchise to women.
To see the online exhibition, click here
To find out more about Vote 100, click here
From February-June 2016, Naomi was Cultural Engagement Fellow at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. From September to November 2016, Naomi returned to SAS as the co-curator of London Hub 'Ministry of Hope and Fear' and London Hub Convenor for the Being Human Festival.
From 2015-2016 Naomi was the Post Doctoral Research Associate for Poor Theatres, an AHRC funded project at the University of Manchester.
She contributed to the process of documenting the work of local, national and international theatre initiatives working in the area of economic justice and/or addressing poverty. This included carrying out and editing online interviews with international theatre practitioners, and the documentation of a homelessness theatre project and theatre entrepreneurship project with young people in Manchester.
She contributed to the process of documenting the work of local, national and international theatre initiatives working in the area of economic justice and/or addressing poverty. This included carrying out and editing online interviews with international theatre practitioners, and the documentation of a homelessness theatre project and theatre entrepreneurship project with young people in Manchester.
About Naomi: TEACHING
University Teaching
2019-23 London Arts and Humanities Partnership. Workshop Leader 'Public Engagement'
2017-18 V&A/RCA, MA History of Design – Performance, Guest Lecturer for ‘Class, Culture & Hierarchies’.
2017-23 School of Advanced Study, University of London. Workshop Leader ‘Impact and Public Engagement’.
2018 University of Manchester, Visiting Lecturer, BA Drama: Gender and Sexuality on the Twentieth Century British Stage.
2017 University of Manchester, Visiting Practitioner, BA Drama: Performance Practices 2.
2013-16 University of Manchester, Visiting Lecturer, BA Drama: Texts in Rehearsal/Texts in Performance.
“Engaging. Entertaining. Enthusiastic. I would really recommend this course to others purely based on Naomi’s teaching.”
Student feedback, 2014
2024 - Northumbria University, Guest Workshop Leader - History
2013-16 University of Manchester, Teaching Assistant, BA Drama: Performance Practices 2.
2012-14 University of Manchester, Teaching Assistant, BA Drama: Performance Practices 1.
2015 University of Glasgow, Guest Speaker – Performance, Music Department
2014 University of Hertfordshire, Guest Lecturer – English
Other Teaching
2017-23 Comedy and character comedy workshops for City Academy, London
2021-23 Guest speaker for The Art of Drag, Royal Vauxhall Tavern
Actor/Trainer for Extreme Psychiatry, King's College London
Suffrage theatre workshops for secondary schools
Puppet workshops for secondary schools
GSCE and A Level Drama teaching experience
Naomi is a mentor for Arts Emergency
Naomi was the first Actor in Residence at Christ's Hospital School, West Sussex in 2002.
She then spent five consecutive summers in Romania working in state run orphanages for special needs adolescents and developed a drama workshop programme that used puppetry to facilitate communication and creative work with non-speaking, autistic spectrum participants.
2019-23 London Arts and Humanities Partnership. Workshop Leader 'Public Engagement'
2017-18 V&A/RCA, MA History of Design – Performance, Guest Lecturer for ‘Class, Culture & Hierarchies’.
2017-23 School of Advanced Study, University of London. Workshop Leader ‘Impact and Public Engagement’.
2018 University of Manchester, Visiting Lecturer, BA Drama: Gender and Sexuality on the Twentieth Century British Stage.
2017 University of Manchester, Visiting Practitioner, BA Drama: Performance Practices 2.
2013-16 University of Manchester, Visiting Lecturer, BA Drama: Texts in Rehearsal/Texts in Performance.
“Engaging. Entertaining. Enthusiastic. I would really recommend this course to others purely based on Naomi’s teaching.”
Student feedback, 2014
2024 - Northumbria University, Guest Workshop Leader - History
2013-16 University of Manchester, Teaching Assistant, BA Drama: Performance Practices 2.
2012-14 University of Manchester, Teaching Assistant, BA Drama: Performance Practices 1.
2015 University of Glasgow, Guest Speaker – Performance, Music Department
2014 University of Hertfordshire, Guest Lecturer – English
Other Teaching
2017-23 Comedy and character comedy workshops for City Academy, London
2021-23 Guest speaker for The Art of Drag, Royal Vauxhall Tavern
Actor/Trainer for Extreme Psychiatry, King's College London
Suffrage theatre workshops for secondary schools
Puppet workshops for secondary schools
GSCE and A Level Drama teaching experience
Naomi is a mentor for Arts Emergency
Naomi was the first Actor in Residence at Christ's Hospital School, West Sussex in 2002.
She then spent five consecutive summers in Romania working in state run orphanages for special needs adolescents and developed a drama workshop programme that used puppetry to facilitate communication and creative work with non-speaking, autistic spectrum participants.