Ishy Din is a taxi-driver from Middlesborough, whose script John Barnes Saved My Life was shortlisted as part of Radio 5 Live's Sports Shorts competition and aired in 2004. He was then commissioned to write a piece for the BBC Brief Encounters series, has written for BBC Radio Newcastle, and came second in the British Asian writing competition BANG! in 2007 (Oldham Coliseum Theatre, Tamasha and BBC Writersroom, supported by Media Training North West). Ishy Din won Best New Play at the Manchester Theatre Awards for his play Snookered. He has recently completed Sustenance with Deborah Bruce for New Writing North, with support from the Arts Council and the Peggy Ramsey Foundation, and a short Arvon Foundation writing residency with tutors Simon Stephens and Graham Whybrow. He is currently working on an idea for a new musical called Soul Brother with the support of the Adopt a Playwright scheme (OffWestEnd.com), and is also developing a short film Hijab, and a screenplay entitled Fraud.