A festival programmer reads the first sentence of your bio. If they can’t immediately understand who you are and why you’re relevant to their audience, they move on to the next artist. Not for lack of time — for an excess of options.
The bio isn’t a summary of your CV. It’s a sales text that needs to answer three questions in under thirty seconds: who you are, who you’re relevant to, and why it should matter.
Two versions, two functions
Short bio (50–80 words)
For programmes, festival listings, venue websites, brief press. It must identify your genre or discipline, two or three credentials or references, and one differentiating element.
It can’t be vague. “An artist in continuous evolution who explores boundaries” says nothing. “String quartet trained at the Royal Conservatoire, with three seasons at the Barbican and a repertoire spanning Baroque and contemporary improvisation” does.
Long bio (200–300 words)
For press dossiers, grant applications, extended presentations. It can be more narrative: contextualising your trajectory, explaining the origin of the project, mentioning relevant collaborations.
But even here: the first paragraph should be the short bio. Anyone reading in a hurry should be able to stop at the end of the first paragraph with enough information.
The third person rule
Bios are always written in third person. “Maria is an actor trained at RADA”, not “I’m an actor”.
Why? Because whoever reuses it — the programmer writing programme notes, the journalist drafting a profile, the organiser preparing an introduction — needs to be able to copy it directly without rewriting. If it’s in first person, they have to rewrite it. And if they have to rewrite it, they’ll probably do it poorly, or not at all.
The five elements the first sentence needs
Name or project name
Obvious, but often buried in the middle or end. The name goes first, without an article where possible: “Maria Serra is a violinist” works better than “Violinist Maria Serra”.
Discipline or genre
As specific as possible. “Music” says nothing. “Contemporary jazz with electronic elements” does. “Contemporary circus company” does. “Physical theatre and dance performer” does.
Location (if relevant)
“Based in London” or “based in Barcelona” helps local programmers contextualise you. Not essential for every profile, but useful in performing arts and live music.
One validating credential
A recognised school, a notable festival, a significant publication, a collaboration with someone well-known. It doesn’t need to be impressive in absolute terms — it needs to be recognised by your target audience.
What makes you different
Why you and not the adjacent project? It could be format (the only string quartet performing live game music), repertoire (specialised in Mediterranean oral folk tradition), audience (shows for early childhood), or method.
What should never appear in the bio
Empty adjectives: “passionate”, “versatile”, “creative”, “committed”. Every artist claims to be these things. They convey no information.
Grant language: “proposes a dialogue between body and space that challenges the hegemonic gaze”. If you wrote it for a funding application, don’t copy it into your press kit. Programmers won’t read it.
The CV in prose: listing every course, workshop and collaboration since 2008 in continuous text is unreadable. The detailed CV goes elsewhere; the bio selects the three or four points that matter.
To learn what format you need and how to integrate the bio into your press kit, read What is an EPK and why you need one.
If you’d like help writing your bio and building your full press kit, tell us about your project.