David Lan was born in Cape Town. He has lived in London since 1972. His plays have been produced by the National Theatre, the Royal Court, the RSC and the Almeida. He has published an ethnography, Guns and Rain: Guerrillas and Spirit Mediums in Zimbabwe and a memoir, As if by Chance. He was writer-in-residence at the Royal Court from 1995 to 1997 and artistic director of the Young Vic from 2000 to 2018. In 2018 he received the Laurence Olivier Special Award, the Critics' Circle Special Award and the RAI 'Anthropology in the World' award. He is Theatre Associate at BAM in New York.

David Lan was born in Cape Town. He has lived in London since 1972. His plays have been produced by the National Theatre, the Royal Court, the RSC and the Almeida. He has published an ethnography, Guns and Rain: Guerrillas and Spirit Mediums in Zimbabwe and a memoir, As if by Chance. He was writer-in-residence at the Royal Court from 1995 to 1997 and artistic director of the Young Vic from 2000 to 2018. In 2018 he received the Laurence Olivier Special Award, the Critics' Circle Special Award and the RAI 'Anthropology in the World' award. He is Theatre Associate at BAM in New York.