Vayu discovered Storytelling along the South Eastern Coast of India and in Chennai, her home city. She came to England in 1988 to study at the University of Leeds for her doctorate, which was on Indian Performance Oral traditions and their interpretations in contemporary western theatre. Her subsequent career has covered many fields including teaching, writing and performance. In 2001 she founded Vayu Naidu Company, to promote storytelling as theatre, with a signature style combining text, music and dance. Its inaugural production was South, which she wrote and performed together with musician Orphy Robinson and three dancers in a UK national tour directed by Chris Banfield (2003).

Other productions include Future Perfect, a storytelling performance collaboration with director/composer Judith Weir, which toured nationally (2000) as part of Contemporary Music Network, and did an All-India British Council tour with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group in 2002; and Nothing but the Salt (2005), written by Vayu and combining live ‘cello with storytelling and video. The company commissioned a new play Mistaken.. Annie Besant in India from Rukhsana Ahmad which was co-produced with Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre and toured the UK in 2007. The production was then very warmly received in India, at the University of Allahabad, and theatre festivals in Delhi and Chennai in Dec 2007, with Vayu playing the role of the Storyteller.

Her playwriting work includes: There Comes a Karma, and When both directed by Vanessa Whitburn, BBC Radio 4 Drama; Playboy of the Asian World, (1999); Nine Nights, directed by Chris Banfield; and Guess Who’s Coming to Christmas? -  BBC Radio 4 (2003). Vayu’s books for children are published by Wayland Publishers, Collins UK and Tulika Books in Chennai, India.