Emma Grimsley is a multi-hyphenate artist whose discipline-spanning work drives at unearthing the untold.

Grimsley made first strides as a director in the Fall of 2024 with a production of Puccini’s Tosca set in 1969 Rome.

Her solo show Oftentimes Better—created with arranger and orchestrator Benedict Braxton-Smith—recently premiered at the Triad Theater.

Grimsley’s work as a writer includes plays, essays, libretti, fiction, and entertainment journalism. Pieces by Grimsley have appeared in DIAGRAM and have been part of California Festival and readings orchestrated and moderated by The Juilliard School’s Stephen Wadsworth. 

As a performer, she is a passionate explorer of the intersection between opera and musical theatre. Grimsley led the North American touring company of The Phantom of the Opera as Christine Daaé through its closing in February 2020. She has appeared as Johanna in Sweeney Todd with New Orleans Opera, Cinderella in Into the Woods at Annapolis Opera, Cunegonde in Candide with Ash Lawn Opera, and Sally in Jerome Kern’s Sally with Light Opera of New York. 

Grimsley made her Off-Broadway debut as Barbara Conti in Vid Guerriero's ¡Figaro! (90210) and reprised her role during the show’s second Off-Broadway run. 

Before his passing, Grimsley played Myrna Krausova in the New York workshop of Time and Chance, one of the final plays of late Oscar-nominated and Tony Award-winning playwright Mark Medoff.

A champion of new works, Grimsley recently played Kate in the premier of Grammy Award-winning songwriter Marcus Hummon’s Favorite Son at Nashville Opera. She made her Nashville Opera debut and her Des Moines Metro Opera debut as Young Alyce in Tom Cipullo’s Glory Denied. During her time as a Young Artist at The Glimmerglass Festival, Grimsley originated the roles of Reed and LadyFinger in the world premiere of Laura Karpman and Kelly Rourke’s Wilde Tales. 

Favorite operatic engagements have included Lucia in Vespertine Opera’s production of The Rape of Lucretia, Papagena in Die Zauberflöte with Pacific MusicWorks under the musical direction of Grammy Award winner Stephen Stubbs, Ruth Putnam in The Crucible at The Glimmerglass Festival, Minette in the West Coast premiere of Hanz Werner Henze’s The English Cat at the University of Southern California, and James Darrah’s production of Händel’s L’allegro, il Moderato, ed il Penseroso at Hawaii Performing Arts Festival.