Isla Cowan is an award-winning playwright, performer, and director, from Edinburgh.

Recent playwriting credits include She Wolf (ART Award Winner, Assembly Roxy) Progress Review (Stellar Quines, Traverse Theatre), Jack and the Beanstalk (Hopscotch Theatre Company), Alright Sunshine (A Play, A Pie and A Pint, Òran Mór), Daphne, or Hellfire (Pleasance), Sno Wite and the Seven Dickensians (Strange Town, Scottish Storytelling Centre), and The View from 2038 (Royal Lyceum), amongst others.

While Isla performs and directs much of her own work, she also has a distinct directorial practice. Recent directing credits include Daphne, or Hellfire (Pleasance) and The Traverse Scratch Night (Traverse Theatre), as well as development projects for the Traverse Theatre, Beacon Arts Centre, Sleeping Warrior, and Creative Scotland. Assistant director credits include The Duchess [of Malfi] (Royal Lyceum / Citizens Theatre), GUT (National Theatre of Scotland / Traverse Theatre), Success (Royal Lyceum), and Ben-Hur (Reading Rep).

Isla also makes digital and audio theatre, previously working on projects with Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival, Strange Town, and Scottish Youth Theatre.

Isla’s play She Wolf, which premiered at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe, was Winner of the Alpine Fellowship Theatre Prize and the Assembly ART Award, and shortlisted for the Filipa Bragança Award for best solo female performance. Isla’s plays have also recently been shortlisted for the Phil Fox Award and the St Andrews Playwriting Award.

Isla is currently under commission with Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Strange Town Touring Company, amongst others.