Drew Jacoby was born in Boise, Idaho (USA) in 1984, where she received her early training. She spent summers on scholarship at intensive programs including School of American Ballet in New York. At 14, Drew left Boise to study at San Francisco Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle.

Her professional career began at age 17 with Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet in 2002. In 2005 she was invited to join Sylvie Guillem’s Japan tour, performing alongside dancers from The Royal Ballet and Paris Opera Ballet.

Drew is the recipient of a 2005 Dance Fellowship and 2008 Special Projects Grant from the Princess Grace Foundation. She founded her own company with former Dutch National Ballet soloist Rubinald Pronk, which was based in New York City and toured to venues such as Jacob’s Pillow and Holland Dance Festival from 2007-2012. While in New York, she also danced with Christopher Wheeldon’s Morphoses, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, and Lar Lubovitch.

In 2012 Drew was invited to join Nederlands Dans Theater, where she stayed for three years before joining Royal Ballet of Flanders as a principal dancer in 2015. While at Ballet Flanders, Drew danced several iconic roles including the central figure “Melody” in Maurice Bejart’s legendary Bolero and the role of Pina Bausch in her historic piece, Cafe Muller. In 2016 she collaborated on a dance film with choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and musical/visual artist Woodkid in Paris. She has performed works by choreographers including William Forsythe, Jiri Kylian, Maurice Bejart, George Balanchine, Jean Christophe Maillot, and Pina Bausch, and has had original works created on her by Christopher Wheeldon, Lightfoot Leon, Marco Goecke, Crystal Pite, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Alonzo King, Dwight Rhoden, Lar Lubovitch, Edouard Lock, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, and Mauro Bigonzeti.

In 2018 she was nominated for a Benois de la Danse award for her performance in Pina Bausch’s Cafe Muller.

She was featured as a dancer and choreographer in the official music video Cold, by the Editors and played the role of Loie Fuller in the 2020 feature film, Radioactive, directed by Marjane Satrapi.

Drew directed and choreographed her first short film, Evidence of it All, commissioning Pulitzer Prize winning librettist Royce Vavrek and composer Mikael Karlsson to create text and music for her rendition of the seven deadly sins. The film features the voice of Oscar nominated and Golden Globe winning actress Rosamund Pike and Princess Grace award winning dancer Meredith Webster. The film was shown at several international film festival, including Lincoln Center Film Festival in New York City and Cinedans in Amsterdam. It was mentioned in the Guardian as part of “best theater to stream” in summer 2022.

Her choreography has been performed at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, Lucent Dans Theater in The Hague, the Royal Opera House in London, and the Joyce Theater in New York. She has also worked as movement director in fashion, film, and opera. Her work has been reviewed as daring, challenging, highly intelligent, tightly structured, and ‘one that really did shine a new light on contemporary culture and dance’s place in it.’