Grace Ellen Barkey, born in Surabaya in Indonesia, studied dance expression and modern dance at the theatre school in Amsterdam and afterwards worked as an actress and dancer. She choreographed several productions before co-founding Needcompany in 1986 and becoming its full-time choreographer. She created the choreography for Need to Know (1987), ça va (1989), Julius Caesar (1990), Invictos (1991), Antonius und Kleopatra (1992) and Orfeo (1993). She also acted in several of these productions, as well as in The Snakesong Trilogy - Snakesong/Le Voyeur (1994), Caligula (1997), Needcompany’s King Lear (2000), Images of Affection (2002), No Comment (2003), The Lobster Shop (2006) and The Deer House (2008). She was one of the cast of Goldfish Game (2002), Jan Lauwers & Needcompany’s first full-length film.

Since 1992 she has been steadily and successfully building an international career with her own stage creations. Her first pieces, One (1992), Don Quijote (1993) and Tres (1995) were coproduced by Theater AmTurm in Frankfurt. These were followed by the Needcompany productions Stories (Histoires/Verhalen) (1996), Rood Red Rouge (1998) and Few Things (2000). Few Things was received very enthusiastically both at home and abroad. With (AND) (2002) she transcends all the boundaries of theatre, dance and music with an irresistible flair. In 2005 Grace Ellen Barkey presented her new stage show, Chunking and was nominated for the Flemish Community Culture Prizes (2005). The Porcelain Project (2007) is her latest dance piece, for which she created a porcelain installation together with Lot Lemm.