Rachel Gray is a Canadian interdisciplinary artist, director, and writer based in Ottawa, Ontario.  Working across film, opera, visual art, and performance, she creates immersive, emotionally resonant experiences that center disability aesthetics and access as a generative creative force.

Her short films blend puppetry, dance, and storytelling, and have toured nationally, including Dreamscapes (Ghost Rooster Collective), which raises awareness around mental health and accessible filmmaking. She is currently co-directing Island of Listeners, a collaboration with the Isenberg Lab that visualizes end-of-life stories from palliative care patients, caregivers, and staff.

Rachel works in a long standing creative duo with composer Rebecca Gray to create contemporary operas that use dark humour to explore the complexities of modern life including works such as Raccoon Opera and Transbliss™, presented in Montreal, Ottawa, and Atlanta. Her graphic novel Jess was adapted into an opera by Pacific Opera Victoria and received Opera America’s Award for Digital Excellence in 2023. In 2022, she was awarded the Mécénat Musica Prix 3 Femmes commission to develop a new operatic work.

A founding member of Ghost Rooster, a disability arts collective working at the intersection of dance and film, Rachel also served as Artistic and Executive Director of BEING Studio (2020–2022), a space for artists with developmental disabilities. Her work continues to engage with community groups and academic collaborators to reimagine how art can communicate complex ideas and foster connection.

Rachel’s projects have been presented nationally and internationally, with work in the collections of the City of Ottawa, the U.S. National Park Service, and private collectors across North America. At the heart of her practice is a desire to create shared spaces of expression and connection—where others can see themselves reflected and where language expands to include what is often left unsaid.