It is named after the actor Peter Ustinov who led the fundraising programme for the Studio's creation in the early 1990s.

[2] The Ustinov Studio re-opened in February 2008,[3] following a period of closure for refurbishment, with their own production of Breakfast With Mugabe starring Joseph Marcell, Miles Anderson and Nicholas Bailey.

[51] The Daily Telegraph's Dominic Cavendish praised the venue as a "constantly bubbling fount of marvels" at the awards ceremony.

In Autumn 2013, the Ustinov presented The Spanish Golden Age Season, three new translations of rarely seen plays.

These included the tragedy Punishment without Revenge, and the romantic comedies Don Gil of the Green Breeches and A Lady of Little Sense, which ran in repertory with a cast of ten actors in all three plays between September and December 2013.