Mark Forrest
Playwright, screenwriter and creative producer
I’m a Scottish-Asian writer who grew up in Leith, Edinburgh. I write for stage and screen, exploring class, identity, family and what it means to belong. My background includes documentary filmmaking for Channel 4 and primary teaching in the UK and abroad. I’m drawing on my years in the classroom as I develop Half and Half, my first play for young audiences.
What I’m working on
Half and Half
Eleven-year-old Jamie is half Scottish and half South Asian. When a school homework assignment asks Jamie to make a family tree, it sparks a very unscientific experiment: can you measure how Scottish or how Asian you are? And where do you put the things that belong on both sides?
I’m currently developing Half and Half for ages 8–12 through a partnership between Imaginate, South Asian Artists Scotland and Playwrights’ Studio, Scotland. The work will be shared as a rehearsed reading at the 2027 Edinburgh International Children’s Festival.
Find out more on the Imaginate website
ANNIE
I’m developing a new play inspired by Annie Cargill Murray, a working-class Edinburgh nurse who volunteered during the Spanish Civil War. Drawing on her letters and family records, the play moves between hospital wards in Edinburgh and Spain to ask what it takes to care for someone on the other side of a war.
SHIPS
I wrote and independently produced SHIPS, a drama set in a Leith pub. Directed by Liam Rudden, it sold out all five performances at Leith Arches during the 2026 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. I’m now developing it for a Scottish tour.
https://www.instagram.com/shipsleith/
Recent news
My short dark comedy Epiphany was published in Life and Love in Leith, an anthology from Leith Writing. I was also nominated by the National Theatre of Scotland for the Adopt a Playwright Award.