Shona M’gadzah (she/her) is an emerging lighting designer and programmer based between Scotland and London, working across theatre, dance, fashion, live events, and club environments. With a growing portfolio of design and technical credits, her practice is grounded in both creativity and collaboration.

Her recent theatre credits include as Lighting Designer The Trial (StoryFest); This is About Tangerines, Please be a Fish, Pubes, Dangerous Play, Entre Nous and Two Sisters (StoryFirst); BOSH (StoryFirst Revisited); Carrie (Platform); Jekyll & Hyde and Little Women (Byre Theatre).
As Associate Lighting Designer Water Colour (Byre Theatre Association with Pitlochry Festival Theatre & Traverse Theatre Company); Mankind Forever, Nail Bar and I Am Asking You to Touch Me (StoryFest); Snow White (Camberley Theatre) and Side by Side by Sondheim (Byre Opera).
As Assistant Lighting Designer Sweat (Citizens Theatre & Royal Lyceum Edinburgh).
As Lighting Trainee National Theatre of Scotland’s production of Maggie & Me.

Alongside design, Shona is passionate about education and outreach. She has held various training roles developing and delivering programmes for the next generation of technical theatre practitioners.

She is a Youth Trustee for the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain (NYT), having first joined through their Lighting, Video & Projections Backstage Intake Course. Since then, she has worked with the company across a range of projects. Her roles have included Company Manager for the Backstage Intake Courses, Facilitator on IGNITE your Creativity (supported by Netflix) and Course Assistant on the Digital Accelerator - a joint partnership with NYT and Microsoft. In 2025, she was a speaker at the inaugural SXSW London, where she co-led a workshop on the future of live theatre alongside other creatives, providing video design for the session.

Shona is a graduate of the University of St Andrews, where she was awarded both the Cedric Thorpe Davie Memorial Prize for outstanding contribution to musical drama and the Sandy Mackenzie Award, given to a student who has gone above and beyond in their involvement with the Students’ Association. In 2025 Shona was awarded the Profile Award for the Student Virtual Lighting Design Competition.