Baroness Deborah Bull is Vice President & Vice-Principal (Communities & National Engagement) and the Senior Advisory Fellow for Culture at King’s College London. She joined the university in 2012 following a long and successful career in the arts, first as a dancer with The Royal Ballet and then as Creative Director, Royal Opera House.
She joined the House of Lords as a cross bench Peer in 2018, where she sits on the Communications & Digital Select Committee, is a Vice Chair of of the APPG for Eating Disorders and Co-Chair of the APPG for Creative Diversity. Her current legislative interests include weight related issues across the spectrum, learning disabilities and autism as well as arts, culture and the creative industries.
Deborah writes and presents a wide range of work for television and radio, is the author of four books, and regularly writes and speaks on issues relevant to arts and culture, to her work at King’s and in the House of Lords. She has served on the Boards of South Bank Centre, Arts Council England, as a Governor of the BBC, as a judge for the 2010 Booker Prize and as a member of the Arts & Humanities Research Council. She is currently a board member for the Prix de Lausanne and the Nureyev Foundation as well as the Mayor’s London Recovery Board. She has received honorary doctorates from Derby University, Sheffield Hallam University, the Open University, Kent University and Lincoln University and was awarded a CBE for her contribution to the arts in 1998.