Peter Sellars studied at Harvard University and in Japan, China and India, before becoming Artistic Director of the Boston Shakespeare Company and then Director of the American National Theater Washington DC. He made his Glyndebourne debut in 1988 directing The Electrification of the Soviet Union, returning for Die Zauberflöte and Theodora. He was Artistic Director of the 1990 and 1993 Los Angeles Festivals, Artistic Director of the 2002 Adelaide Festival Australia, and is currently Professor of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA.

He received the MacArthur Prize Fellowship, and was awarded the Erasmus Prize at the Dutch Royal Palace for contributions to European culture.

Work in opera includes St François d'Assise, Mathis der Maler, Le Grand Macabre, The Rake's Progress, I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky, El Niño, The Story of a Soldier, Peony Pavilion, L'Amour de loin and, with choreographer Mark Morris, Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer. He has directed widely in theatre and in film. Most recently he directed Antonin Artaud's For an End to the Judgement of God and June Jordan's poem Kissing God Goodbye (Tate Modern).