Lou Jacob has directed New Plays, Musicals, Classics and Adaptations in the United States, Europe and Asia. Recent Off-Broadway productions include the world premiere of Sam Shepard's The God of Hell, starring Tim Roth, Randy Quaid, J. Smith-Cameron and Frank Wood; Coyote on a Fence, (2 Drama Desk Award Nominations, Village Voice Top Ten); Dickens Hard Times (Village Voice Season Highlight, Drama Desk Nom. Best Director); Vilna's Got a Golem (Village Voice Season Highlight), Victoria Stewart's Live Girls at Urban Stages. The Summer Play Festival, produced by Arielle Tepper, for 3 years, directing Hardball, Courting Vampires and Arrivals and Departures by Rogelio Martinez. Mr. Jacob's production of the US premiere of The Glass Cage by JB Priestley at The Mint Theatre was named a top ten production of 2008 by Time Out Magazine and was nominated for 2 Lucille Lortel Awards, winning Outstanding Scenic Design.

Internationally and on tour, his acclaimed new production of Saturday Night Fever, played for two seasons at the Beatrix Theatre in Amsterdam, and his play, Night Train to the Stars, premiered in Tokyo at the Metropolitan Theatre. He is the director of Backyardigans Live! For Nickelodeon and Live Nation.

Recent productions in the US include The Blonde, The Brunette and The Vengeful Redhead, starring Michelle Pawk at City Theatre; Black Comedy at Barrington Stage Company; Charles Mee’s wintertime and Yasmina Reza’s Lifex3 at The Roundhouse Theatre (Washington, DC); Julius Ceasar at People’s Light and Theatre Co.(Production of the Year: Philadelphia Inquirer); CHESAPEAKE at City Theatre; the world premiere of Angus MacLachlan’s THE RADIANT Abyss at Woolly Mammoth/Kennedy Center; Speaking in Tongues and Shakespeare, Moses and Joe Papp (2 Helen Hayes Awards, including Outstanding New Play) at The Roundhouse Theatre. Red Herring at Florida Stage; Honus and Me and Fuddy Meers (Production of the Year: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)at City Theatre.

Other productions include Just So, produced by Cameron MacKintosh and Goodspeed Musicals; Mary and Myra and Coyote on a fence at CATF; "1040," and Coyote Goes Salmon Fishing, both produced by Stuart Ostrow; Hard Times (8 Barrymore Award Nominations) at People's Light; Vilna's Got a Golem (Best Director of a Play, Philadelphia Inquirer)at Philadelphia Festival Theatre; and Entries, with music by Mickey Hart, at George Street Playhouse (Best Director of a Play - Newark Star-Ledger). Mr. Jacob is the recipient of The Princess Grace Statue Award and a previous Princess Grace Award. He was Resident Director at New Dramatists in 1999-2000 and an original New York Theatre Workshop ‘Usual Suspect.’ He has been mentored by such diverse directors as Elia Kazan and Frank Galati and holds degrees in Theatre and Intellectual History from Northwestern University.