Lauren Mooney is a writer & dramaturg working in theatre, audio drama & prose fiction
Fiction
Lauren’s debut novel Service is published by Manilla Press (an imprint of Bonnier), and was released in June 2026. It is currently available in hardback, ebook and in an audiobook edition read by comedian Stevie Martin.
You can order Service here. There is also a special, sprayed-edge edition (below left) available in independent bookshops.
Some of the things people are saying:
Switchblade-sharp fiction for the work-life unbalanced. An ingenious melding of nightmares. - Glen James Brown, author of Ironopolis and Mother Naked
Funny, bleak, delicious, totally terrifying. I could not put it down. And then I could not turn off the light. I loved it. - Ella Risbridger, author of In Love with Love
An acerbically witty and haunting state of the times debut. For fans of Daphne Du Maurier who like their Gothic novel with a twist of biting comedy. - Charlotte Paradise, author of Overspill
Forthcoming 2026 live events for Service include:
Monday 6 July at Rye Bookshop, Rye, East Sussex (enquiries@theryebookshop.co.uk for tickets)
Thursday 9 July, Debut Fiction Panel at Waterstones Trafalgar Square, with Anna Goldreich, Emma Lowther and Rebecca Taylor McKay (tickets)
Thursday 30 July, Waterstones Birmingham, in conversation with Kat Dunn (tickets)
Service was sold to Bonnier in a two-book deal, and Lauren is currently working on her second contracted novel.
She is a 2020 graduate of the Creative Writing (Prose) MA at the University of East Anglia, where she held the David Higham scholarship. She is represented by Veronique Baxter at David Higham Associates.
Since 2015, Lauren has co-run award-winning Kandinsky Theatre Company with director James Yeatman, where she works as a writer and dramaturg. You can find out more about the company’s work here. Her credits on Kandinsky projects include commissions from the Royal Court, Royal Exchange Manchester and the Schauspielhaus in Vienna, as well as extensive work at the New Diorama Theatre, where Kandinsky was an associate company for nearly a decade.
Lauren’s work as a writer and dramaturg for Kandinsky includes More Life (Royal Court 2025, ★★★★ The Guardian, Whatsonstage), There Is A Light That Never Goes Out (Royal Exchange 2019, ★★★★ The Stage, The Observer), Dinomania (New Diorama 2019, ★★★★★ ‘No-one else makes theatre quite like this’ Time Out) and Trap Street (New Diorama/Festival of International New Drama, Schaubühne Berlin, 'not only the highlight of the festival but one of the most ingenious pieces of new theater I have seen recently' New York Times).
Kandinsky have also toured nationally, delivered extensive engagement projects and worked in drama schools, including premiering an adaptation of Mrs Caliban with students at Central School of Speech and Drama in 2024. In 2021, Kandinsky’s The Winston Machine (★★★★ 'a typically probing and playful work from Kandinsky…shot through with music and mischief' Guardian) toured to venues including the Marlowe in Canterbury, Bristol Old Vic and Theatre by the Lake.
Lauren is a graduate of the Royal Court Writers’ Group. Her writing for stage, screen and audio is represented by Imogen Sarre at Casarotto Ramsay & Associates.
Theatre
More Life. Photo by Helen MurrayThe Winston Machine. Photo by Chelsey CliffDramaturgy
Beyond Kandinsky, Lauren works freelance as a dramaturg in scripted and devised theatre. Recent dramaturgy credits include Top Gs Like Me by Samson Hawkins (Royal & Derngate Northampton, spring 2026) and My Mother’s Funeral: The Show by Kelly Jones (Paines Plough Roundabout 2024 / SoHo Playhouse New York / Yard Theatre London), which won Fringe First and Summerhall Lustrum awards.
Lauren previously spent two years in the literary and producing team at Clean Break Theatre Company, where she co-edited their monologue collection Rebel Voices (Methuen, 2019), and has worked as a dramaturg with venues and companies as varied as Wales Millennium Centre, Pleasance Edinburgh, Live Theatre, the Mercury and Opera Zuid. She was the dramaturg on LAMDA’s annual Collab project from 2020 to 2025.
She has also run workshops on dramaturgy for Wildcard, Leeds Conservatoire, Paines Plough and the Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester, and worked as a script reader at the Royal Court, Polka Theatre and National Theatre, including on the 2024 Polka Playwriting Award.
My Mother's Funeral: The Show, photo by Nicola YoungTop Gs Like Me, photo by Manuel HarlanAudio
Lauren has co-written several audio dramas for Big Finish Productions with her husband, Stewart Pringle. Their extensive credits include:
The Lincolnshire Poacher, Torchwood, November 2022
Below There, Ninth Doctor Adventures, August 2023
Lost Hearts, Eighth Doctor Adventures, May 2024
The Quintessence, Third Doctor Adventures, Oct 2024
The Miracle of Pendour Cove, Jan 2025
The Miracle of Pendour Cove has recently been nominated for a 2026 Scribe Award.
Lauren’s full Big Finish credits can be found here.
She has also script edited for the Torchwood range, where her work includes Restricted Items Archive, The Last Love Song of Suzie Costello and Suckers.
Recording day for Dog Hop, Dec 2022. Photo by Tony WhitmoreAbout
Lauren grew up in a working-class family in Northampton, attending the University of Liverpool on a scholarship for high-achieving students from low-income backgrounds. She graduated in 2012 and lived in London for thirteen years, working variously as a waitress, receptionist and PA before going freelance in 2018. From 2018-20, she was a part-time student on the MA in Creative Writing (Prose) at UEA.
She lives in East Sussex with her husband Stewart Pringle, also a writer, and their small Greek tortoise, Sacher Tort. She likes swimming, ceramics, group singing and the pub. Her fondest wish is to have a medium-sized dog one day.
Lauren is on Instagram and Bluesky, technically, though she rarely remembers to post anything.
Photos by Helen Murray.
