Jo read English at Oxford, before training as a director at LAMDA, then spending a year at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond as part of their Trainee Directors Scheme. In 2002, she won a Channel Four Trainee Director Award to the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester and went on to be made an Associate Director there two years later. Her productions for the Royal Exchange include: SALT (Bruntwood Award Winning Play); A TASTE OF HONEY (TMA nomination for Best Supporting Actor), ROOTS (MEN award for Best Actress); THE VORTEX (MEN nomination for Best Actress and Best Design); PRETEND YOU HAVE BIG BUILDINGS (Bruntwood Award Winning Play); POMEGRANATE (MEN nominated Best New Play); ELECTRA (MEN nominated for Best Studio Production); and KNIVES IN HENS. She returned to the Orange Tree Theatre in 2009 to direct a critically-acclaimed revival of Susan Glaspell’s play ALISON’S HOUSE. She has also directed DRAWN FROM LIFE at the Finborough Theatre, THE TEMPEST at Southwark Playhouse, WOMEN OF TROY and a shortened version of Macbeth for the Orange Tree and workshopped THE WAY OF THE WORLD at the NT Studio.

In addition to her directing, Jo created and ran the Bruntwood playwriting competition (“the Booker prize of the theatre” – the Guardian), whilst managing the literary department at the Royal Exchange. She has also assisted over twenty different directors, including Marianne Elliott and Dominic Cooke.

Following a year in post as New Writing Development Manager, BBC New Writing North she is currently a Development Producer at Lime Pictures.