Shira Szabady was born in Budapest and has lived in Vienna since 2013.

After completing her degree in "Theatre, Film and Media Studies" at the University of Vienna, she began her studies in "Music Theatre Directing" at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in 2017. During her studies, she developed a great interest in modern music and directed works such as "The Medium" by Menotti and "Dialogues des Carmélites" by Poulenc, among others.

Her diploma production was a contemporary adaptation of Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" at the Schönbrunn Palace Theater.

In January 2022 she made her directorial debut with Gerd Kühr's gripping piece "Stallerhof" at the Neue Oper Wien.

Parallel to her studies, since 2016 she has been working as a freelance assistant director in numerous opera productions in various opera houses such as La Monnaie/De Munt, the Vienna State Opera, the Theater an der Wien, the Neue Oper Wien, the Bregenz Festival, the Vienna Festival Weeks, the Vienna Chamber Opera, the Bolzano City Theater and the Palace of Arts Budapest.

Shira Szabady has worked with well-known directors including Keith Warner, Andreas Homoki, Romeo Castellucci, Tatjana Gürbaca, Lotte de Beer, Vasily Barkhatov to name just a few.