​​In the Nairobi I grew up in, in the 70s and 80s, there were no mobile phones, no Google searches,

no Uber rides and no kids’ programmes on TV; we played outside with marbles and jumped

the river at the bottom of Hillcrest Preparatory School during break times. Even then,

the place I was most at home in wasn’t the hockey field; it was on stage, magnetised by

the power and wonder of an audience.​

​

​Hillcrest Secondary followed, in the era of big hair, leg-warmers, Sno-Cream and Bubbles disco.

I loved Shakespeare and inter-house debating, and loathed cross-country and organic

chemistry. My love-affair with the stage continued and I had my first taste of set designing and

directing, and asked my parents if I could apply toDrama School. ‘In your dreams,’ they said.

 

​So I went to Oxford University, to study Human Sciences, which would open my horizons

and blow my mind. A stint in Advertising in London followed, before the call of home brought

me back to Nairobi, and a job with Fast Forward Productions, making TV commercials

that were mostly about soap. I became the bubble-making queen of Nairobi for a while,

with an electric whisk and a surplus of imported Fairy liquid.​

​​

In 1994 I opened Jigsaw Limited, a design company that manufactured and retailed

wrought-iron. My business empire grew to two retail outlets in Sarit Centre and a factory in

Industrial Area, but, truth be told, it didn’t make me either rich or happy. When my focus

was further diverted by a couple of kids, I closed shop. I did some illustration: maps,

posters, greeting cards, and renovated a couple of old houses, loving the idea

that I was saving pieces of Nairobi's history.

​

But nothing filled me with the exhilaration I’d felt on stage and in 2014, after twenty-three

years of exile, I finally made it back. I also started writing. My first finished work, a play

entitled ‘A Man Like You’ was about two men trapped in a windowless concrete room in Somalia,

and it led me on a great adventure following its premiere in Nairobi in March of 2016. It won two

Sanaa Awards; Best Actor for Maina Olwenya and Best Tragedy. In July 2016  it opened

off-Broadway, in New York. 2017 saw a World Tour on three continents and the play continues

to generate discussion about who is and who isn’t a terrorist.

​

In July of 2014, I started writing a novel; a marathon of dedication and diligence, and trudged

through rounds of submission that showed me just how unforgiving the publishing industry is.

So I put that novel away and started another! I diverted from it to write a new play,

‘Speak Their Names’, about a witch-hunt in sixteenth century Italy. It premiered in Nairobi in

November of 2022 and was nominated at the Kenya Theatre Awards 2022 for Best Supporting

Actress, Best Actor, Best Screenplay and Best Production. I'm at present seeking

representation to the publishing industry for my second novel 'The Goatherd'.