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Nikolai was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, grew up in North Yorkshire and trained at Drama Centre London and at the Crucible, Sheffield.

His work has been seen in many of the UK’s leading regional theatres, touring houses and internationally. Nikolai has been director on attachment at the Sheffield Crucible, the Royal Court Theatre and National Theatre Studio and served as an Associate Director at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds.

Most recently, Nikolai has directed an acclaimed revival of A Chorus Line. During lockdown, Nikolai directed Curve’s first digital streamed production, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s critically acclaimed Sunset Boulevard – at Home, which was hailed as a ‘Game-changer’ by the Telegraph. Nikolai has also recently directed a major revival of West Side Story, Hanif Kureishi’s My Beautiful Laundrette (nominated for Best Regional Production at the WhatsOnStage Awards 2020), Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, the world-premiere of Dougal Irvine’s adaptation of Riaz Khan’s Memoirs of an Asian Football Casual (nominated for Best Regional Production at the WhatsOnStage Awards 2019), An Officer and a Gentleman – the Musical (& UK tour), Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard (& UK tour), Joe Orton’s What the Butler Saw(with Theatre Royal Bath), Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey’s Grease (Curve, Dubai World Trade Centre & UK tour), Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest (with Birmingham Rep), the Broadway musical Spring Awakening (with NYMT), Legally Blonde (Opera Garnier, Monaco & Daegu Opera Festival, South Korea – Winner Best Musical – Daegu International Musical Festival Awards), Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s (& Haymarket Theatre, London & UK tour), Roald Dahl’s The Witches(with Rose Theatre Kingston, Lyric Theatre, Hong Kong, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds & UK tour), Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, Shakespeare’s Richard III, Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good and a performance to celebrate the reveal of the tomb of King Richard III at Leicester Cathedral.

Nikolai has also directed acclaimed productions of Calamity Jane (UK tour), Irving Berlin’s White Christmas (West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds); Jonathan Harvey’s Beautiful Thing (20th anniversary production – Arts Theatre, London); Calamity Jane (Watermill Theatre, Newbury & UK Tour); Brecht’s The Good Person of Sichuan (Mercury Theatre, Colchester); Sherlock Holmes – The Best Kept Secret by Mark Catley (West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds); Shelagh Stephenson’s The Memory of Water (New Vic, Stoke & Stephen Joseph, Scarborough); the European premier of Morris Panych’s The Dishwashers (Birmingham Rep); the Sondheim / Furth musical Merrily We Roll Along (Clwyd Theatr Cymru); The Diary of Anne Frank (York Theatre Royal & The Touring Consortium); a major new production of the Broadway musical, Annie (West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds & on tour throughout 2015);Shakespeare’s As You Like It (Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre, Chester) & Macbeth (Singapore Repertory Theatre, Fort Canning Park, Singapore).