Leyla Nazli co-founded the Arcola Theatre with Mehmet Ergen in 2000, and has been Executive Producer at the theatre since 2004, producing all of the theatre’s in-house productions. She has worked as an adaptor, having translated Kroetz’s The Nest and adapted Gogol’s The Government Inspector for a performance at the Arcola in 2007. In 2006 she was one of 50 promising new writers selected to take part in The Fifty, a year-long mentoring programme organised for the 50th anniversary of The Royal Court Theatre, in conjunction with the BBC. Writers were nominated by theatres nationwide and received a bursary, as well as masterclasses in writing for theatre, radio, film and television. Subsequent to a rehearsed reading at the Royal Court, her debut play Silver Birch House opened to critical acclaim at the Arcola in 2007.