Shireen Mula: Multicultural Playwright and Theatre-Maker Shaping Stories of Belonging

Basic Information

Early Life and Identity

Born in Galway on December 11, 1970, to an Irish mother and Mauritian father, Shireen Mula grew up amid shifting horizons. Childhood years in Saudi Arabia, followed by a move to England, shaped her as a “third culture kid” who learned to read the world across languages, landscapes, and customs. That layered upbringing—restless yet rooted—would become the quiet engine in her work, propelling stories of belonging, estrangement, and the right to be seen.

Mula attended Dominican College Taylors Hill in Galway before studying playwriting and theatre-making at Middlesex University. The discipline honed her craft; the multicultural lens sharpened her perspective. From the start, her plays have listened closely to voices at the margins and asked what community looks like when no single identity is allowed to take center stage.

Craft and Career Highlights

Mula’s professional ascent gathered momentum in 2010 when she became playwright-on-attachment at the Royal Court Theatre. That same year she premiered Nameless at Arnolfini, a work attuned to migration and memory. The next decade saw her carve out a distinct practice—intimate, collaborative, and structurally adventurous.

In 2011, she was named an associate artist at Nottle Theatre in South Korea and premiered Same Same at Ovalhouse with fanSHEN. It explored cross-cultural relationships with tenderness and wit, and was shortlisted for the Royal National Theatre Foundation Playwriting Award. The play later reached Italian audiences through a British Council-supported translation and presentation in Puglia (2012).

Mula’s commitment to socially engaged theatre surfaced vibrantly in Why Is The Sky Blue? (2018, Southwark Playhouse), a work that earned two Off West End Award nominations for best production for young people. Projects like The Justice Syndicate (2018) and Lists for The End of The World (2017) with Fast Familiar extended her interest in participatory and data-informed storytelling, inviting audiences to weigh evidence, interrogate bias, and witness collective decision-making in real time.

By 2021, 39 and Counting added to a body of work that balances formal ingenuity with ethical curiosity. In 2022 she contributed as a writer to Secret Cinema’s immersive Bridgerton and Dirty Dancing experiences—an apt meeting of pop culture and dramaturgical rigor. Recent years include Belongings (as dramaturg and writer; UK tour 2023–2024), and a 2025 adaptation of Sarah Moss’s Night Waking for An Tobar and Mull Theatre.

Teaching and Collaboration

Alongside writing, Mula is a lecturer at London South Bank University, working across BA and MA programs in Drama and Performance. She has led workshops with Soho Theatre, Deafinitely Theatre, and other companies, guiding emerging artists through the practical alchemy of text, movement, and ensemble-making. Collaboration is her constant: with directors, performers, youth ensembles, and communities, she builds frameworks where process matters as much as product.

Her style respects the intelligence of audiences and participants alike. She employs layered dramaturgy, indeterminate endings, and the reveal of hidden systems—techniques that invite viewers to become co-authors in meaning. It’s theatre as civic lab: rigorous, kind, and open.

Family and Personal Life

Public details of Mula’s family are sparse by design. She has spoken of her Irish mother and Mauritian father as foundational to her sense of self; specific names are not public. No siblings are widely mentioned.

Her enduring partnership with actor Golda Rosheuvel is the most visible part of her personal life. The pair met at a friend’s party in the early 2010s. After a decade of shared life—including a formative U.S. East Coast road trip—they married in a low-key ceremony around 2023. They live in South London, often cheering on each other’s work. Rosheuvel has credited Mula with steadiness during sudden bursts of fame, while Mula champions queer visibility and the production of LGBTQ+ stories—especially “gay plays,” which she has noted can face barriers to staging. They do not have children, and they tend to keep domestic life private, sharing glimpses rather than spotlights.

Family at a Glance

Selected Works and Milestones

Themes, Voice, and Impact

Mula writes in the spaces between identities, where intimacy meets politics. Her plays often circle questions of home—who gets to define it, who is denied it, and how the past threads its way into present tense. She favors multi-voiced structures, ensemble performance, and dramaturgy that makes systems visible: immigration policies, social judgments, colonial legacies, data biases. Across youth theatre, immersive formats, and traditional stages, her storytelling is inclusive without being didactic; ethical without losing humor or delight.

Her influence extends beyond the script. As a mentor and educator, she demonstrates how to build equitable rooms—rehearsal spaces where collaborators are safe to risk, fail, and reimagine. In a field that often feels precarious, she models sustainable artistry: steady output, careful partnerships, and patience for the long arc of change.

Recent News and 2025 Projects

In 2025, Night Waking—Mula’s adaptation of Sarah Moss’s novel—premiered with An Tobar and Mull Theatre and toured Scotland, including dates at the Traverse Theatre and Theatre Royal Dumfries. The production braided themes of motherhood, history, and colonial residues, bringing Mula’s gift for layered narratives to a new audience. She continues to share snapshots of rehearsal life and island landscapes on X, keeping the focus on craft rather than celebrity.

Looking ahead, The Flip Side signals another step in her exploration of how stories can hold contradiction: intimacy and distance, data and feeling, silence and the words that finally break it.

Timeline

FAQ

How old is Shireen Mula?

She is 54, born December 11, 1970.

Where is she from?

She was born in Galway, Ireland, and later lived in Saudi Arabia and England.

What is her cultural background?

She is Irish-Mauritian and describes herself as a “third culture kid.”

What does she do professionally?

She is a playwright, theatre-maker, dramaturg, and university lecturer.

Is she married?

Yes, she is married to actor Golda Rosheuvel; their ceremony took place around 2023.

Does she have children?

No children are publicly reported.

What are her notable works?

Key works include Same Same (2011), Why Is The Sky Blue? (2018), 39 and Counting (2021), and Night Waking (2025, adaptation).

What themes recur in her writing?

Identity, belonging, queer visibility, social justice, and the unseen systems shaping everyday life.

Where does she teach?

She lectures at London South Bank University.

What is her net worth?

Her finances are not publicly verified; online estimates of $850,000–$1 million are speculative.