Niels Erling (b. 1988) is a stage director, writer, and artistic director based in Copenhagen. From summer 2026, he will serve as co-artistic director of the Betty Nansen Theatre, one of Copenhagen’s historic producing theatres, together with Nanna Jelsgaard.

His work focuses on the creation of original pieces and radical reinterpretations of classical texts, with a distinct contemporary lens. His productions are conceptual, text-driven, and visually striking—often maximalist, tightly choreographed, and physically demanding. They unfold in a tension between the expressive, the emotionally rigorous, and the self-analytical, using aesthetic intensity to examine the conditions of being human in a fragmented and hyper-mediated reality.

Erling approaches theatre as a site of confrontation and critical reflection. His works engage with desire, power, exhaustion, vulnerability, love, and identity, investigating how economic, social, and cultural structures shape our relationships. Drawing on pop culture, capitalism, and heteronormative power systems, his aesthetic operates in a space that is both seductive and destabilising.

In 2013, he founded the production platform AKT1, through which he has created a range of stage works and produced more than 125 original audio pieces in collaboration with writers, composers, and performers. His stage works include the Blonde Babe trilogy (Work Bitch, Pamela, Lose Yourself), which explores identity, self-performance, and desire through pop-cultural icons.

He was artistic director of Teater Momentum (Odense) for the 2019–2020 season, where he created the trilogy The Downfall (Crisis, Catastrophe, Apocalypse).

Niels Erling holds an MFA from Malmö Theatre Academy (2018).