Laila Ali is a London-based writer and filmmaker, and one of eleven writers selected from over 2,400 applicants for Penguin Random House UK’s award- winning WriteNow programme in 2025. WriteNow champions and develops emerging voices from underrepresented communities across the UK.

She holds a BA and MA in English Literature from Queen Mary University of London, where she also served as Editor-in-Chief of the university’s creative writing magazine. She has directed three theatre productions and written four screenplays.

A prose writer, poet, playwright and screenwriter, her work spans literary fiction, crime, fantasy, romance and women’s fiction, exploring cultural identity, family, faith, and freedom — particularly through the lens of the British South Asian experience. She has written three novels and is currently seeking representation as a debut author.

Marked for Love – accepted into the WriteNow 2025 cohort: 
Society is defined by predestined love, where everyone’s soulmate is marked on their skin — except Wren Aldridge, whose mark is nothing but an illegible scar. When her best friend turns up dead and the official verdict doesn’t sit right, she starts digging into things that were never meant to be found, and stumbles into a conspiracy far darker than one death.