Christopher Haydon new Artistic Director of Gate Theatre

Christopher Haydon has been named as the new Artistic Director of The Gate Theatre, a fringe venue in Notting Hill Gate, west London. He takes over in January 2012, from Natalie Abrahami and Carrie Cracknell, who step down as Joint Artistic Directors in January after nearly 5 years in the role.

Haydon is currently the Associate Director of On Theatre, and an Associate Director at the Bush Theatre, where he has been collaborating with Josie Rourke to curate and oversee the Sixty Six Books project.

Haydon studied at Cambridge University and trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, the National Theatre Studio, the Lincoln Centre in New York, and with Cicely Berry at the RSC. In 2007 he was the recipient of both the inaugural Chichester Festival Theatre Heller Fellowship and the Channel Four Theatre Director's Bursary where he spent a year on attachment at the Salisbury Playhouse.

Christopher Haydon said "I am thrilled to be taking over at the Gate. It is a small space with limitless horizons located in one of the most exciting parts of London. I can't think of a better place to be making theatre today."