Lucy Kerbel is the director of Tonic Theatre. She completed a vocational course in stage management, technical theatre, and set and costume. She graduated from Royal Holloway, University of London with a degree in Drama and Theatre Studies. During her time as an award-winning theatre director working around the UK, she became interested in the question of gender equality in theatre. Kerbel founded Tonic Theatre in 2011 to support theatre and the arts to achieve greater gender equality, diversity, and inclusion.

She is the author of 100 Great Plays for Women (2013) and All Change Please: A Practical Guide for Achieving Gender Equality in Theatre (2017). Kerbel is a regular speaker on women in the arts, and she is on the board of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for women playwrights.