Arifa Akbar is chief theatre critic at The Guardian. A journalist of several decades, she is a former literary editor of The Independent where she also worked as a news reporter and arts correspondent. She has also worked as arts editor at Tortoise Media, and written for newspapers including the Financial Times, The Observer and The Evening Standard, as well as featuring as a regular guest on BBC Radio Four’s Front Row and The World Service’s The Arts Hour.

Her first book, Consumed: A Sister’s Story, was longlisted for the Baillie Gifford prize and shortlisted for the Costa Biography Prize, the PEN Ackerley Prize and the Jhalak Prize. Her second book, Wolf Moon: A Woman’s Journey into the Night, was a BBC Radio Four Book of the Week.