is a Swiss theater director, journalist, essayist and lecturer. He won the Swiss Theater Award in 2014
Milo Rau was born in Bern, Switzerland. He studied sociology, German studies, and Romance studies in Paris, Zürich, and Berlin, working under the instruction of Tzvetan Todorov and Pierre Bourdieu, amongst others. In 1997, he traveled as a journalist to Chiapas and Cuba, and in 2000 began writing for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Since 2002, he's been active as a playwright, author, and director in Switzerland and abroad, working with the Maxim Gorki Theater and Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin, Staatsschauspiel Dresden, the Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers in Paris, and many other theaters. His work has earned him invitations to some of the world's largest theater and arts festivals, including the 2012-2013 Berliner Theatertreffen, the Festival d'Avignon, the Venice Biennale, and the Vienna Festival. In 2019, his piece La Reprise. Histoire(s) du théâtre (I), which documents the murder of Ihsane Jarfi, was performed at the Edinburgh International Festival.
In 2007, he founded a theater and film production company, the International Institute of Political Murder (IIPM), which he's been running since. The company was originally founded to coordinate Rau's project The Last Hour of Elena and Nicolae Ceaușescu, but over time, its focus broadened to its current goal of "the multimedia treatment of historical and sociopolitical conflicts." Since its founding, the IIPM has realized more than 50 theatrical productions, films, books, exhibitions, and political actions.
Alongside his work as a playwright and director, Rau has taught directing, cultural theory, and social sculpture at various universities and conservatories. Since 2017, he has also been a regular guest on the Swiss talk show Literaturclub and in 2018 he became the artistic director of the Belgian NTGent, succeeding the Dutch director Johan Simons. With the company, Rau intends to establish a "global popular theater," specializing in international tours.