Anette Ollerearnshaw

Anette Ollerearnshaw has a (slightly) more unusual professional history than most people, even by today’s normalised standards of a creative portfolio career.

Having completed her undergraduate studies in Wigs, Hair & Make-up as a mature student in the early 2000s; her first paid job in the creative industry was collaborating with Robert Wilson on a production of ‘The Black Rider’ at the Barbican Centre in London. 

With a varied and rewarding freelance career in the performing arts sector across the UK and internationally, Anette became increasingly sought after as a safe pair of hands to lead projects, productions and programmes at the intersection of people, spaces and creative activity. This saw her being recruited in leadership roles in technical departments across the globe. 

By the 2010s Anette secured a step change from Head of Wigs & Make-up at the English National Opera into the role of Technical Manager at the University for the Arts London. She is still seeking to overcome biases and develop her reputation in the hope that one day hiring managers are no longer frightened by the words wigs, hair & make-up in the same application as executive and leadership.