Kinvara Balfour

Kinvara lives and works between London and Los Angeles. As a director, writer, producer and speaker, her work spans the worlds of tech, film, theatre and fashion.

In 2023, Kinvara was chosen as a leading cultural female by The Wall Street Journal to star in a series of films entitled EYE ON THE UNEXPECTED shot in Saudi Arabia, showing that Saudi is one of the new cultural destinations of the world. Kinvara is the creator and director of THE VISIONARIES, a series of mini-films shot on iPhone featuring the changemakers of the world (set designer Es Devlin, Soho House founder Nick Jones, screenwriter Peter Morgan, composer Dustin O’Halloran) which airs on Kinvara’s YouTube channel. 

In 2016, Kinvara was Executive Producer on cinematic biopic MCQUEEN, the twice BAFTA-nominated film (Best Documentary and Outstanding British Film) about the life and career of the late British fashion designer Lee Alexander McQueen which enjoyed global theatrical release in 2018. 

In recent years, Kinvara created, produced and hosted her own series ‘Fashion in Conversation at the Apple Store’, a hugely popular collection of interviews for Apple Inc. in London and New York with global icons including Tom Ford, Anna Wintour, Manolo Blahnik, Philip Treacy, Nick Knight and Sandy Powell. The series is available globally on iTunes. 

Kinvara speaks at conferences around the world about tech, film, fashion, culture and the zeitgeist. She hosts talks at London’s V&A museum. She has directed the launch of several major tech start-ups - including the hugely successful DailyCandy.com (sold to Comcast for a reported $125 million in 2008) and a new digital platform for Time Out. Kinvara was director of Vanity Fair’s UK digital platforms and content. She made a series of iPhone films about ‘The Architects of Time’ for Vanity Fair and UBS. After university, Kinvara attended Central School of Speech and Drama where she trained as an actress; she has acted in several UK fringe theatre productions and short films including the Oscar-nominated CASHBACK.

In 2004, Kinvara wrote and performed in her first play DAZED AND ABUSED - a modern, twisted comedy of manners - which premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe before transferring to London and New York. In 2008, Kinvara attended the Royal Court Theatre's Creative Writers Programme after which she conceived her second play, AFTER INVISIBLE. Kinvara is an ambassador for the National Theatre and works to widen its reach in the USA and beyond.