Shona M'gadzah

Shona M’gadzah (she/her) is an emerging lighting designer and programmer based in Scotland and London with design and technical experience in theatre, dance, fashion, live events and club environments. She is a Youth Trustee for National Youth Theatre and joined in 2022 through the Lighting, Video & Projections Backstage Intake Course. She has been involved in a range of projects with NYT such as the backstage community workshops and backstage intake courses and regularly works as a course assistant, most recently for the Digital Accelerator workshops - a joint partnership between NYT and Microsoft.

Shona has also held various technical training & outreach positions outside of NYT where she has been involved in designing and delivering technical theatre training programs to the next generation of those passionate about backstage theatre. Recent credits include Lighting Designer for Jekyll & Hyde (Byre Theatre) and Little Women (Byre Theatre), Associate Lighting Designer for Snow White (Camberly Theatre), Side by Side by Sondheim (Byre Opera) and Lighting Trainee on National Theatre of Scotland’s production of Maggie & Me.

Shona is a recent graduate of the University of St Andrews where upon graduating she was awarded the University’s Cedric Thorpe Davie Memorial Prize for outstanding contribution to musical drama. She was also recently nominated for the Student Virtual Lighting Design Award at the 2025 Profile Awards. Alongside her lighting endeavours, Shona is currently completing the clinical years of a degree in medicine at the University of Glasgow.