Simona Semenič is a Slovenian playwright and performer. She completed her dramaturgy studies at the Academy for Theatre, Radio, Film and Television (AGRFT) in Ljubljana.
Simona is a recipient of the Prešeren Fund Award, the highest Slovenian national award for artistic creation. She is also a three-time winner of the Grum Prize, the highest national award to be bestowed on a playwright in her native Slovenia. Her first award winning play 5boys.si (2008) was translated into twelve languages, staged in several countries in Europe, USA and in the Middle East and also published in several countries outside her homeland. She also won awards for 24hrs (2006) and seven cooks, four soldiers and three sophias (2014) and was nominated for 1981 (2013) and this apple, made of gold (2016). Productions of her plays won several awards in Slovenia and abroad.
Simona also writes, directs and performs autobiographical experimental theatre shows, which include 9 easy pieces (2007, with artistic group Preglej), I, the victim. (2007), do me twice (2009), 43 happy ends (2010, with artistic group Preglej), Kapelj and Semenič Under Construction (2012, with Barbara Kapelj), Bulc and Semenič For Sale (2013, with Mare Bulc) and the second time (2014). Her shows received outstanding notices from the audience and from theatre critics and Simona performed them at several festivals in Slovenia and abroad.
She has also been collaborating with Ivan Talijančić, Janez Janša and other theatre directors and choreographers as a co-writer and a dramaturge.
Simona lives in Ljubljana with her two sons.
