"Institutions, big and small, were run by people with flair; not just Nicholas Hytner and Michael Boyd at the flagships (the National and the RSC), but Sam West in Sheffield, Jonathan Church at Chichester, Neil McPherson at the Finborough, Sam Walters at the Orange Tree."
Michael Billington, The Guardian - Review of the Year 2006

“Neil McPherson's imaginative tenure at the Finborough”
Rhoda Koenig, The Independent on Sunday

“Neil McPherson is one to watch. Since he took over the running of the Finborough Theatre in 1999, the young Scotsman has transformed this small room above an Earl's Court pub into a blazing beacon of intelligent endeavour, nurturing new writers while finding and reviving neglected curiosities from home and abroad."
Dominic Cavendish, The Daily Telegraph

“Neil McPherson, Finborough's presiding genius (and arguably one of the shrewdest producers currently operating on the fringe)"
Carole Woddis, Rogues and Vagabonds

"The superlative artistic direction of Neil McPherson.”
Dominic Cavendish, The Telegraph

"Like the Finborough Theatre, the best kept secrets are often hidden away from the usual theatre razamataz. Neil McPherson, who has just unearthed another amazing find in Patrick Hamilton’s Hangover Square has proved to have that absolutely essential but elusive quality when it comes to running a theatre: an unerring sense of a good play be it fifty, sixty years old or fresh off the keyboard."
Carole Woddis, Theatrevoice.com

Born in London, Neil McPherson trained as an actor for three years at the Central School of Speech and Drama, and was a member of the National Youth Theatre for eight years.

He has been Artistic Director of the Finborough Theatre since January 1999. During that time, he has seen the Finborough Theatre become an multi-award-winning venue.

He has commissioned many productions for the Finborough including Falkland Sound, The Destiny of Me, Young Emma, The Murder Club, The Women’s War – A Centenary Celebration, The Monument, Masks and Faces, How I Got That Story, Soldiers, Happy Family, Lark Rise to Candleford, The War Plays, The Freedom of the City, Florodora, Mass Appeal, Loyalties, Our Miss Gibbs, The Representative, Young Woodley and Tea and Sympathy, The Maid of the Mountains, The Zoo, Sweethearts, Ours, Jamie the Saxt, The Boatswain's Mate, Weapons of Happiness, A Day by the Sea and Jingo.

He has also commissioned a number of new plays and adaptations for the Finborough Theatre including Laura Wade's London debut, Young Emma, and two plays by award-winning young playwright James Graham - Eden's Empire and Little Madam.

He was Artistic Director of the New End Theatre, Hampstead, for the 1996-97 season. As the sole full-time member of staff, he was also responsible for all areas of the theatre's activities. Programming included Blood and Ice by Liz Lochhead (The Times' Critics Choice); a New Jewish Plays Season with world premieres of plays by Arnold Wesker, Julia Pascal, Tom Kempinski, Judi Herman and Orly Castel-Bloom; the world premiere of The Cracked Comic by Stewart Permutt (Time Out Critics' Choice); the world premiere of Gari Jones' Wretch; the world premiere of Soul Doubt, the play that made John Cargill Thompson the UK's most performed professional playwright in 1997; and musicals including Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's Assassins. Other innovations included the revival of Sunday and Monday one-night shows, late night comedy and Saturday matinees; and collation of the theatre archives, including writing a history of the venue; and an expanded education provision.

He has produced over 60 productions and co-productions with his production company Concordance.

His plays include I Wish to Die Singing, a documentary drama on the Armenian genocide, and Mumper's Dingle, an adaptation of the novels Lavengro and The Romany Rye by George Borrow, performed in Brompton Cemetery Chapel in 2003.

Freelance Production and General Management work includes The True History of the Tragic Life and Triumphant Death of Julia Pastrana, The Ugliest Woman in the World (BAC Playing in the Dark season, awarded five stars in The Guardian), Associate Producer of the sell-out extended-run production of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidmans Assassins (New End Theatre, Hampstead) and Producer of the World Premiere of Thomas Brown's 1697 comedy, Physick Lies A Bleeding; or the Apothecary Turned Doctor at Apothecaries' Hall, London, for The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries.

As an actor, he appeared in Lionel Bart's Maggie May (Royalty Theatre), Trinculo in The Tempest featuring choreography by Matthew Bourne (The Place), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shaw Theatre), The Rivals (Greenwich, Brighton and Aberdeen) and the leading role of Alfred Locke in Lionel Bart's musical Blitz! (Playhouse Theatre), all for the National Youth Theatre. Other work includes The Provoked Husband, The People's William, Heinrich Heine vs Nikolai Gogol (New End Theatre, Hampstead), Mass Appeal, Harry's Christmas, Not About Heroes, Oklahoma!, Displaced Person (Concordance, mainly at the City of London Festival), Where Breath Most Breathes... (BAC) and the title role in Give a Dog a Bone (Westminster Theatre). He also has extensive experience in cabaret and variety including appearances at the Palace Theatre, the Bloomsbury, the Astoria, the Kenneth More Theatre, Ilford, and for the British Music Hall Society. Television includes Princess Daisy (NBC), Late Expectations (BBC), four years as a stand-in on Whose Line is it Anyway? (Hat Trick Productions), a short film for Mike Leigh and the title role in John Osborne's autobiographical television play, A Better Class of Person which was nominated for the Prix Italia (Thames).