Haresh Sharma is a veteran Singaporean playwright who has written more than 100 plays that have been staged in cities all around the world, including Melbourne, Glasgow, London and Singapore. He holds a master of arts degree in playwriting from the University of Birmingham, and has plied his trade with The Necessary Stage for over three decades as its resident playwright since 1990.

Sharma’s oeuvre includes acclaimed plays such as Top of the World, Good People, Model Citizens and Fundamentally Happy, which was named by The Business Times as one of Singapore’s “finest plays in 50 years”. Fundamentally Happy was lauded for tackling the topic of paedophilia “with extraordinary grace and sensitivity”. Another play, Off Centre, was also selected by the Ministry of Education as a Literature text for “O” and “N” Level secondary school students.

Sharma has also taken part in various writers’ festivals, including the inaugural Singapore Literature Festival in NYC, the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, and the New Delhi World Book Fair. The Cultural Medallion awardee and Tatler Singapore Award for Culture 2018 recipient also takes an active hand in nurturing the next generation of playwrights and theatre enthusiasts, organising theatre workshops and writing plays for school assemblies, and teaching National University of Singapore Theatre Studies students.