Paul Budraitis is a Berlin-based director, actor, writer, and solo performer, as well as a teacher of acting, stage movement, solo performance, and interdisciplinary art.

Paul is a first-generation Lithuanian-American, born in Queens, New York, into a refugee immigrant family. Both his mother and father spent their earliest years growing up with their families in displaced persons camps in Germany before emigrating to the United States on Red Cross ships under the Congressional Displaced Persons Act. Upon arriving in their new home, his mother’s father, who had worked as a teacher before his displacement, supported his family by working as a gravedigger. His father’s father, who had been a chemist, found work sweeping the factory floors of a pharmaceutical manufacturer. He is forever grateful to his ancestors, who were actively involved in his upbringing, and who instilled in him a love of culture and community.

Paul studied theater and political science at Indiana University, and spent his formative years as a theater artist working in the experimental theater scene in Seattle, where he was a company member of the collectively-run incubator for new works, Annex Theatre, as well as an artistic associate of the innovative music and performance company Degenerate Art Ensemble.

He eventually left Seattle to return to the country of his ancestors as the recipient of a Fulbright grant to study theater directing at the Lithuanian Music and Theatre Academy in Vilnius, Lithuania. He earned his master's degree under the mentorship of visionary theatre director Jonas Vaitkus, and subsequently worked with the National Drama Theatre of Lithuania, the State Youth Theatre of Lithuania, the Kaunas State Drama Theatre, and Oskaras Koršunovas/Vilnius City Theatre (OKT). In Lithuania, Paul initiated and directed the first-ever Lithuanian-language productions of Erik Ehn’s The Saint Plays and Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure. He also acted in a contemporary re-imagining of Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, directed by acclaimed Finnish director Kristian Smeds, which was performed in Lithuania, as well as in a refugee settlement territory on the outskirts of Vienna, as part of the Vienna Festival.

After seven years in Lithuania, Paul returned to Seattle, where he created his original solo work (IN)STABILITY, and directed the world premiere of Kristen Kosmas’ The People’s Republic of Valerie, both at On the Boards. He also directed the world premiere of Elizabeth Heffron’s Bo-Nita at Seattle Reperatory Theater, the Northwest premiere of Will Eno’s The Realistic Joneses with New Century Theatre Company, the Northwest premiere of David Greig’s The Events at Intiman Theatre, and the critically-acclaimed Seattle premiere of David Harrower’s Blackbird. Together with his beloved collaborators, Timothy White Eagle (lead artist) and artist/activist HATLO, he co-founded The Violet Triangle, which had its first post-pandemic production The Indigo Room at La Mama E.T.C. in New York in November of 2021. The Indigo Room was also performed at On the Boards (renamed Revival for the On the Boards performance), and then was invited back for a three-week run at La MaMa as part of the Public Theater’s 2023 Under the Radar Festival.

Just as the Omicron variant was starting to make its way around the world, Paul moved his life and performance practice to Berlin. Since his arrival, he has created and performed two original solo works, BLIND, and I Love That For You, both at Acker Stadt Palast Theater. He is honored and excited that I Love That For You will have its U.S. premiere at La MaMa E.T.C. in December of 2024.