Born in Paris, Nicolas Joel started his career at the age of 20 as Jean-Pierre Pronnelle and Patrice Chereau’s assistant. 

He achieved his first staging in Strasburg in 1979 (The Ring, Wagner). Quickly, he started to be invited by major international theatres (San Francisco, Milan, London, Buenos Aires, New York, Los Angeles, Vienna…). From 1987 he began to work regularly with the Chorégies d’Orange Festival. 

From 1990 to 2009, time where he was the Director of the Capitole de Toulouse, he staged many works for the Chorégies d’Orange festival (Louise, Mignon, Jenůfa, The King of Ys, Oedipus, The Ring, by Wagner). 

Joel was appointed Director of the Paris Opera in 2009. Among the masterpieces of the repertoire, he always favoured contemporary creations with opera productions such as Akhmatova by Bruno Mantovani and La Cerisaie by Philippe Fénelon (stage creation), and ballets like La Source by Jean-Guillaume Bart, Psyché by Alexeï Ratmansky, L’Anatomie de la sensation by Wayne McGregor and Siddharta by Angelin Preljocaj. 

Many works entered the repertoire under its direction (The Dead City, Korngold, Matthias the Painter, Hindemith, Francesca de Rimini, Zandonai, Kaguyahime, Kylian. He also revived major works, commissioning new productions like Aida, by Olivier Py and the Ring by Gunter Krämer.