Ishy Din

Ishtiaq Din

Ishtiaq Din, professionally known as Ishy Din, was born in Middlesbrough in January 1969. He is the youngest of six children. Din’s father, a barber and chef, migrated from Mirpur, Pakistan to Middlesbrough in the early 1960s, where several members of his family were already working in the steel works, primarily for the steel producer Dorman Long. In 1968 Din’s mother and siblings migrated to Middlesbrough, and the family settled on Russell Street, where several Pakistani families also lived. His family was closely connected with Nafees Chohan and Ghulam Chohan.

Din left school in 1985, aged 16. Like many young people in Middlesbrough, he grappled with the economic effects of deindustrialization, which led to the demise of Teesside’s steel industry and resulted in high rates of unemployment. After various stints as a labourer and in self-employment, Din worked as a taxi driver for over twenty years, until 2012.

In 2004, whilst cabbing, he heard a call for short scripts with a sporting theme by BBC Radio 5 Live, prompting him to write John Barnes Saved My Life, a short radio play about the experiences of two British Pakistani boys who watch Middlesbrough FC play for the first time. The advert coincided with Din’s purchase of a computer for his children, which he hoped to get better use out of. Din’s play was shortlisted, much to his surprise, marking the start of his writing career.

In 2008, Din took part in a Tamasha Developing Artists New Writing course. It was here that the idea of his first full-length play, Snookered, emerged. The play is an exploration of the ambitions and struggles of four young British Pakistani men, who reunite in a snooker hall on the anniversary of their friend’s death. Din wrote the play in between taxi jobs and drew inspiration from conversations with his customers. Snookered was presented by Tamasha in association with the Bush Theatre and Oldham Coliseum Theatre in 2012 to critical acclaim. The play toured widely across the UK, marking the first of several collaborations between Din and Tamasha. In 2012, Din was the Pearson Writer in Residence at the Manchester Royal Exchange. In 2013, Snookered won Best New Play at the Manchester Theatre Awards.

Much like Snookered, Din’s subsequent work draws on themes of race, community, class, family and identity, and is often inspired by his personal experiences of being working class, South Asian and Muslim in northern England.

His second full-length play, Wipers, a 2016 co-production between the Curve Theatre, Belgrade Theatre Coventry and Watford Palace Theatre, explores the fears, aspirations and politics of South Asian soldiers stranded in Ypres during the First World War. This was inspired by Khudadad Khan, the first South Asian soldier to be awarded the Victoria Cross.

Between 2017 and 2019, Din was a scriptwriter for the Channel 4 series Ackley Bridge, created by Ayub Khan Din. In 2018 Din and Tamasha co-produced Taxi Tales, broadcast on BBC Two as part of the BBC’s Performance Live strand. The show consisted of three connected monologues delivered in the cabs of three local taxi drivers from Middlesbrough.

In 2019 Tamasha, the Kiln Theatre and Live Theatre co-produced Din’s play Approaching Empty, directed by Pooja Ghai. Set in a Middlesbrough minicab office in the aftermath of Margaret Thatcher’s death, the play follows two middle-aged South Asian migrant men who navigate changing friendships and shifting aspirations against the backdrop of national debates regarding the effects of Thatcherism.

Din co-wrote Silence, an adaptation of Kavita Puri’s book Partition Voices: Untold British Stories, which premiered in 2022. Produced by Tara Theatre and the Donmar Warehouse, the play drew on the testimonies of those who lived through the partition of India in 1947.

In 2025 Champion premiered at Live Theatre in Newcastle upon Tyne. Set during boxer Mohammad Ali’s historic visit to South Shields in July 1977, it follows a working-class, mixed-race British Pakistani family as they navigate conflicting ideas about community, race, identity and activism.

Din is Associate Playwright at the Royal Court. He is under commission for new plays at the Kiln and RSC. He continues to be rooted in Middlesbrough.