Leesa Gazi

Gazi's father fought during the Bangladesh Liberation War.^[1]

Gazi is the co-founder of theatre and arts company Komola Collective.^[3] She was the script-writer and performer of Six Seasons and Tahmima Anam's A Golden Age at the Southbank Centre. Her theatrical credits include:^[4] Birangona: Women of War,^[5] Sonata, Rokey's Dream, Demon's Revenge, Ponderful People, and Bonbibi. She also wrote the script for Bonbibi: Lady of the Forest in 2012.^[4] She performed in People's Romeo,^[6] which had an eight-week nationwide tour with Tara Arts.^[4] Sonata, adapted and performed by Gazi, was invited to Bangladesh in 2010 by the British Council.^[7] She performed in a serialised adaptation of A Golden Age. She worked as the cultural coordinator and as a voice artist for Akram Khan's Desh.^[4]

In 2012, she worked as a script interpreter for the Globe to Globe Festival at the Globe Theatre on The Tempest. She acted in a play about domestic violence called Whisper Me Happy Ever After. She works for Train4change as an actor as well, and worked on a project with them on a film for the charity WaterAid. Between May and August 2014, she worked as an actor in a series of BBC educational films.^[4]

Gazi hosts Aei Jonopode, a weekly live-phone-in show on Bangla TV. In 2010, her first novel, Rourob, was published.^[4]

Gazi was awarded the Grants for the Arts by the ACE for the Birangona: Women of War theatre project by Komola Collective. She is the concept developer, co-writer and the performer of this theatre production.^{[4][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]}

In May 2014, Gazi was interviewed by Nadia Ali on BBC Asian Network.^[16]

Gazi and her husband have two children: one born in 2004 (named Sreya), the other in 2006 (named Orion).