Cate Blanchett Heading Back to Class in Surprising New Career Move as She Calls it a Creative Rumpus

Professor Blanchett reporting for duty.

Oscar winner Cate Blanchett is confirmed for a surprising new career move as the next Cameron Mackintosh visiting professor of contemporary theater at St. Catherine’s College at the prestigious University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. She will assume the post for this fall’s academic year of 2026-27.

The professorship — established in 1990 thanks to a gift from the renowned British theater producer responsible for such legendary productions as Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera and Cats — has a history of bringing “internationally significant figures from theater, film and performance into direct dialogue with students” and the university community. Blanchett follows in a line of previous visiting professors including Stephen Sondheim, Ian McKellen, Arthur Miller, Meera Syal, Tom Stoppard, Adjoa Andoh, Stephen Fry, Diana Rigg, Trevor Nunn and Deborah Warner, among others.

Blanchett will be charged with contributing to a program of conversations, lectures and engagement with students and the university community. She follows closely in the footsteps of artist and stage designer Es Devlin, who helped expand the professorship’s reach and relevance.

“Art breaks down the borders and boundaries of our imagination; it poses questions and playing with and dissecting it expands and challenges our present reality. My years of creative practice have granted me the opportunity of sharpening feelings into ideas and offered pathways to insight,” Blanchett said in a statement. “The visiting professorship is an electrifying opportunity for me to be in direct, robust creative dialogue with the next generation of thinkers and creative doers. I look forward to beginning this creative rumpus.”

Understandably, Mackintosh said he’s “thrilled” that Blanchett is taking the gig. “I know that her incredible career, both as an actor and producer across stage, screen and television, will be a major inspiration to Oxford’s students,” he said. “Cate’s tenure as artistic director at the acclaimed Sydney Theatre Company in her native Australia was a brilliant success and her ability to balance a life in the arts with her family life has given St. Catz this exceptional opportunity to benefit from her extraordinary range of talents and experiences.”

Added Jude Kelly, master at St. Catherine’s College: “Cate Blanchett is one of the most important and influential artistic voices working today, not only through the extraordinary breadth of her work across theatre and screen, but through her longstanding commitment to cultural dialogue, collaboration and public engagement. The Cameron Mackintosh visiting professorship exists to bring world-leading practitioners into meaningful conversation with students, academics and audiences, and Cate’s appointment represents a hugely exciting next chapter in that story.”

Blanchett’s own story extends far beyond the big screen. In addition to her diversified acting career, she works as a producer, arts advocate and humanitarian while also having served as co-artistic director and co-CEO of Sydney Theatre Company alongside husband Andrew Upton.

The visiting professorship is not the only thing on the horizon for Blanchett. She will reteam with Tar co-star Nina Hoss in Electra/Persona, a new play by Benedict Andrews staged in the Lyttelton Theatre at London’s National Theatre from Aug. 19 – Oct. 10. Onscreen, she next stars in Alpha Gang, Sweetsick and How to Train Your Dragon 2.