Born in Malaysia in 1973 and educated at Princeton University, where he won the Bain-Swiggett Poetry Prize, he now lives in Singapore, where he is a Joint Artistic Director of Checkpoint Theatre.

His plays are frequently performed in Malaysia and Singapore and have been presented in Tokyo, Berlin, New York, and London. His work is collected in Eight Plays (Silverfish Books, 2002), and his plays are studied in universities in the region.

Nominated multiple times for both Malaysia’s Cameronian Arts Awards and Singapore’s Life! Theatre Awards, Huzir was also the inaugural winner, in 2005, of the prestigious Writing Fellowship jointly awarded by the National University of Singapore and The Arts House.

In recent years, his interest in historical themes has led him to write such acclaimed works as Occupation, on the Japanese Occupation of Singapore during World War 2 (a commission of the 2002 Singapore Arts Festival) and spoken parts of the chamber opera Opiume (a commission of the Hong Kong New Visions Festival and the 2004 Singapore Arts Festival). His most recent play, Cogito, was a commission of the 2007 Singapore Arts Festival.

His writing for film includes the feature Dukun (Astro Shaw, to be released in March 2007) and the award-winning That Historical Feeling, an exploration of themes of American foreign policy and Islam, which he also directed and which has been shown in festivals in several countries. His writing for television has appeared on Singapore’s Mediacorp Channel 5, Mediaworks Channel i, and Malaysia’s RTM 2.

He has written for Singapore’s Straits Times, and his fortnightly column in Malaysia’s The Star covers diverse topics in culture, politics, and society.

He also writes on the visual arts, and was a consultant in the redevelopment of the National Museum of Singapore, for which he conceptualized exhibits and directed two documentaries that form part of the permanent collection of the history galleries.

Huzir currently teaches playwriting at both the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University, and has mentored playwrights in Buds Youth Theatre and the History Playwrights’ Circle.