Ali Millar

Born in Edinburgh and raised in a cult in the Scottish Borders, Ali Millar is an author of fiction and non-fiction, and screenwriter working across film and television. On leaving the cult, she enrolled at Edinburgh Napier University, where she graduated with an MA with distinction in Creative Writing, winning the class medal.

Drawn to the darker side of life, her work across all mediums explores her sustained preoccupations of control, exclusion, and the uncanny, often deploying dystopian, near future, or rural environments as a lens into strong female led stories. Never in search of easy resolution, her work features complicated characters in messy situations.

Her debut memoir about life inside the Jehovah’s Witnesses, THE LAST DAYS (PRH, 2022) was released to widespread critical acclaim, called ‘a masterpiece’ by Amy Liptrot and described as ‘a real-life handmaid’s tale’, it became a Guardian Book of the Year. It is now in development with Junction Films, where she is adapting it into a feature-length screenplay.

Ian Rankin described her debut novel, AVA ANNA ADA (White Rabbit) as ‘every bit as gripping as it is terrifying’, with press in the UK and Italy comparing it to the work of David Lynch, Yorgos Lanthimos, and Jean Cocteau.

Her first screenplay, Sophy, brings to life the  inspirational true story of Sophia Jex-Blake, a trailblazer of women’s rights in medicine and education, and early LGBTQ pioneer.

In 2024 the Scotsman named her a Scottish Artist to Watch. In 2025 she was a UNESCO Writer in Residence in Vastraland, Sweden. Her journalism has appeared in The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Stylist, The Independent and other outlets. As broadcast journalist she has interviewed some of the world’s leading writers and artists including Tommy Orange, Samantha Harvey, Maggie O’ Farrell, Jeremy Deller and David Baddiel. She has appeared on BBC Radio Scotland, Channel Four, The World Service, NBC Australia, Rai 3, Times Radio and Talk TV.

She now divides her time between the south coast of England and Edinburgh.