Ali founded Generation Arts in 2012. She is a director and teacher and has an MA with Distinction in Applied Theatre from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and a PGCE in Drama from the University of Reading. She has directed productions with young actors at The Arcola, The Yard Theatre, Central, Hackney Empire, Lyric Hammersmith, The Pleasance, The Platform Theatre, The Roundhouse, Stratford Circus, The Scoop and The Tricycle (now Kiln). She is a lecturer on MA and BA courses at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and at Drama Centre London. She co-founded ‘Sharing Voices’, a theatre for development project working with Tsunami children in Sri Lanka. She has facilitated drama projects working with young people from pupil referral units at The Roundhouse, in schools for Outspoken Arts and West End in Schools, co-directed START at the Lyric, Hammersmith and as an Artist Mentor for The Barbican’s “Barbican Box” programme. For a number of years Ali was Head of Drama in London secondary schools in the top 1% of deprivation where she significantly raised the profile of Drama, increasing GCSE results from 53% to 96% A*-C in two years. She has worked as a GCSE and A’ Level Drama examiner, and undertakes consultancy work in schools to support Drama teachers’ CPD. She co-produced a Drama INSET training programme at The London Palladium, and has designed the educational workshops to accompany The Railway Children at Kings Cross Theatre. At the National Youth Theatre, she managed the Playing Up social inclusion programmes for two years, delivering accredited training for young people NEET and raising achievement to 100%. Throughout 2010 and 2016/17 she enjoyed working as a supernumerary in the West End production of An Inspector Calls directed by Stephen Daldry. Ali is one of 20 social entrepreneurs to have been selected for the 2019 Enterprise Learning Programme led by the School for Social Entrepreneurs.
