Chris Ballance is a playwright and Scottish Green Party

Scottish Green Party

The Scottish Green Party is a green party in Scotland. It has two MSPs in the devolved Scottish Parliament, Alison Johnstone, representing Lothian, and Patrick Harvie, for Glasgow.-Organisation:...

 politician, a former Member of the Scottish Parliament

Member of the Scottish Parliament

Member of the Scottish Parliament is the title given to any one of the 129 individuals elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament.-Methods of Election:MSPs are elected in one of two ways:...

 for the South of Scotland

South of Scotland

South of Scotland can refer to:* South of Scotland * South of Scotland rugby union team* An area comprising the Scottish Borders and Dumfries and Galloway...

 region.

Biography

Born in Worcester

Worcester

The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, , is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some southwest of Birmingham and north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, he owned and managed a second-hand bookshop in Wigtown

Wigtown

Wigtown is a town and former royal burgh in the Machars of Galloway in the south west of Scotland. It lies south of Newton Stewart and east of Stranraer. It has a population of about 1,000...

, won a Scotsman Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1990, and wrote sketch

Sketch comedy

A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...

es for Radio Scotland

Radio Scotland

Radio Scotland was an offshore pirate radio station broadcasting on 1241 kHz mediumwave , created by Tommy Shields in 1965. The station was located on the former lightship M.V...

 before being elected to the Scottish Parliament

Scottish Parliament

The Scottish Parliament is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood", is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament...

 in 2003. He held a seat on the Parliament's Enterprise and Culture Committee and was the Green's Parliamentary business manager and speaker on nuclear issues, culture and peace. He lost his seat in the 2007 election. In August 2007 he was appointed to the Scottish Broadcasting Commission

Scottish Broadcasting Commission

The Scottish Broadcasting Commission was established by the Scottish Government in August 2007. Its purpose is to conduct an independent investigation into television production and broadcasting in Scotland, and to define a strategic way forward for the industry...

 established by the Scottish Executive

Scottish Executive

The Scottish Government is the executive arm of the devolved government of Scotland. It was established in 1999 as the Scottish Executive, from the extant Scottish Office, and the term Scottish Executive remains its legal name under the Scotland Act 1998...

.

He is a member of the Society of Friends (Quakers).

Plays

• Water of Life (1989)
• Bread and Water (1997)
• Hope Deferred (1997)
• Viva La Diva (2001)

External links

• Official biography
• Chris Ballance MSP Profile at the Scottish Green Party website