Zena Barrie lives in Manchester and is founder and co director of the Camden Fringe (commended for OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT in the London Pub Theatre Awards 2023).
She ran the Kings Arms Pub and Theatre in Salford for a while which won The CityLife Award for Best Pub under her tenure, ran the Greater Manchester Fringe for a few years and also the Etcetera Theatre in Camden, as well as working in a wide variety of roles at the Edinburgh Fringe (from street performer to venue manager).
In the 90’s she gained an Honors degree in Drama and Theatre Arts specialising in playwriting at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh.
She co-hosted the award winning spoken word night Verbose with Jo Howard and they won a Saboteur Award for best spoken word night in 2018. Zena regularly performs on the spoken word circuit in and around Manchester.
Zena’s first novel Your Friend Forever was published by Unbound in 2021. Her book of illustrated short stories Two similar looking men with umbical hernias was published in 2025 by Breakthrough Book Collective. Illustrated by Claire Robinson
Zena Barrie 