Riah Knight is a British-Romani artist based in Berlin. The musician, actress and writer first gained recognition in theatre and regularly works at the Maxim Gorki Theatre and with collective Glossy Pain. Knight's artistic work positions a feminist agenda at its core, and has often been directed towards political justice. Her latest EP Wicked Laughter casts a speculative light across the darker sides of femininity - woven within traditions of R&B, folk, trip-hop and performance poetry, it paints a sonic landscape for the political reimagining of female aggression and desire.
Knight has worked at Gorki since 2017, when she had her stage debut in Roma Armee. The production, which Knight co-composed music for, was nominated for the DER FAUST award and featured in the European Theatre Prize. Following this she worked for director Yael Ronen on a series of productions; YES BUT NO (2018), REWITCHING EUROPE (2019), and the ‘almost musical’ SLIPPERY SLOPE (2021) for which she is a co-author. The show was invited to the 2022 Theatertreffen, Berlin. In 2022 Knight was also nominated as one of the Best Upcoming Actresses of The Year by the Theater Heute Critics.
She is an artistic director of feminist collective Glossy Pain and has worked with them on the productions BANG! (TD, 2021), SEYMOUR (TD, 2022), WOYZECK (Theater an der Ruhr, 2023), and LIE WITH ME (TD, 2023). Glossy Pain’s objective is to work with ‘pleasure’ in formations that are free from oppressive structures, taking a critical look at the social norms which have shaped our understanding of gender, race and sexuality. A young, female led company, they have been widely recognised in Germany as one of the most exciting newcomers to the theatre scene. Their shows have been invited to various festivals such as Fast Forward in Dresden, Britney X in Cologne and Westwind Festival Essen. LIE WITH ME, a one woman show in which Knight plays, did a four-star run at Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2024.
