Originally from China, Mo Zhou is a stage director and educator whose international career spans all artistic disciplines including opera, theater, musical theater, dance, and film.  

In the fall of 2022, she joined the faculty of The School of Music, Theater and Dance at University of Michigan - Ann Arbor in the fall of 2022.

Equally passionate about invigorating classical canons and spearheading new works, Zhou’s productions have been seen at Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, the Elbphilharmonie and Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, National Centre for the Performing Arts in China, Santa Fe Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, the Juilliard School, WP Theatre, to name a few. She has also worked as a member of the directing staff at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, the Dallas Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, among others. 

Ms. Zhou has completed her training as the James Marcus Opera Directing Fellow at The Juilliard School, the Directing Fellow at Wolf Trap Opera, 2050 Artistic Fellow with New York Theater Workshop, Time Warner Directing Fellow with WP Theater and as an Apprentice Stage Director with both Merola Opera Program in San Francisco and the Glimmerglass Festival in Upstate New York. She is also a winner of the OPERA America Robert L.B. Tobin Director-Designer Prize.

She has previously taught and worked at the Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, the New School of Drama, among many others.

Ms. Zhou has earned her BA in English and Theater at Bowdoin College and her MFA in Stage Directing at Columbia University where she was a Shubert Presidential Fellowship recipient. She also holds a Certificate in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University.