Zoë McWhinney
Zoë McWhinney (sign name: curly. Pronouns: she/ they) is a sign language poet and Visual Vernacular performer. They have performed at renowned venues, including The Roundhouse, City of Birmingham Symphony and Orchestra, The British Academy, Barbican Centre, Wellcome Collection and Glastonbury Festival. Zoë is also a writer and created a groundbreaking stage adaptation of Ilya Kaminsky’s Deaf Republic poems for the Royal Court theatre in 2025 that went on to show at the Dublin Theatre festival.
Zoë was involved in the pioneering “Sign Language art” seminar hosted by RIKSTEATERN Crea in Stockholm.
Zoë is a graduate of Toulouse’s École Théâtrale Universelle in Visual Performance in French Sign Language. They worked as VV and BSL poetry masters in theatres such as the Royal Shakespeare Company; and Theatre Re for their Bluebelle production.
In A Night in Sign event hosted at the Shakespeare Globe’s Sam Wanamaker Playhouse by Fuse Theatre, Zoë developed a silent but intensely visual masked monologue.
She also made a VV poetry piece entitled The Portrait and The Skylight for the Deptford Literary Festival, which was later nominated for the prestigious Forward Prize in poetry for 2025.
In between performances and readings, Zoë works to foster spaces and opportunities for creativity in visual language for deaf communities in the UK through workshops (ranging from communal afternoon teas to prestigious theatre academic institutions such as the Royal Central school of Speech and Drama, and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and festivals such as Deaffest, Celtic Deaf festival and Flarewave festival) and open-stage evenings such as the Dancing Elephants in Rotherhithe, London.
Known internationally as her Instagram alter-ego “rapuznel,” she shares her art as a Visual Vernacular (VV) performer in various shows and competitions online and offline. Beyond the UK, She has been invited to perform her VV stories around the globe from Oslo, Norway; Piran, Slovenia and the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, to Reims, France and Osaka, Japan.
Zoë was shortlisted for the Forward poetry prize 2026; and, in July 2026, was crowned the world champion in the International Sign Slam hosted at renowned Clin d’ Oeil festival this year, the first woman at Reims to do so.
Represented by Gabrielle Dawes
