Dr. Róisín Tapponi is based in London.
She wrote a debut novel, Scene City, scheduled for release in 2026. She is currently working on her second novel, War Epic. Tapponi is starring in a new theatre play titled Pretender, which is premiering in London in May 2025. She also wrote a play, Screen Play, which will premiere at New Theater Hollywood in Los Angeles in 2026.
Recent book contributions include Vitamin V: Video and the Moving Image in Contemporary Art (Phaidon, 2025), Sarah Lucas: Bunny Book (Sadie Coles, 2024) and Urs Fischer: Monumental Sculptures (Gagosian, 2024). She was an Editor at-Large at System Magazine and has contributed to frieze, Artforum, The Guardian, Vogue and more.
Aside from her writing, Tapponi is a film programmer and Founder of Shasha Movies. For many years, she has worked at the forefront of global independent film and video, across programming, community-building and strategy. She has curated film programmes at The Academy, MoMA, 52 Walker St. David Zwirner, e-flux, Anthology Film Archives, Film Forum, Metrograph, Frieze, Chisenhale Gallery, Art Jameel and many more. Tapponi has delivered talks on film at institutions such as BAFTA, Venice Film Festival, Locarno Film Festival, CPH:DOX and Sheffield Doc Fest. She is also a curator working more broadly across other mediums, and in 2023 curated a series of performances at Lisson Gallery.
In 2023, Tapponi was awarded Forbes 30 Under 30 for Europe. She was on the jury of the Frieze Artist Film Award, CPH:DOX Artist Film Award, the Arab Critics Awards presented at Cannes Film Festival, and President of the Jury at St. Moritz Art Film Festival. In 2022, Tapponi was Guest Curator of the 33rd Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF), and she now sits on the curatorial board. She was also the Juror of the Sheikh Saoud al Thani Photography Award, and the Film Curator of Tasmeem Doha, an international art and design biennial.
At 25 years old, Tapponi completed her PhD in History of Art at University of St. Andrews, where she received a fully-funded scholarship. She has guest lectured on film at universities including Oxford University, Sothebys Institute, Columbia University, UC Berkeley, the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London (UCL), Royal College of Art (RCA) and Northwestern University.
Tapponi (b. 1999) is Assyrian Iraqi & Irish. She also founded and ran Habibi Collective, ART WORK Magazine and Independent Iraqi Film Festival (IIFF), since disbanded.