Mustapha Matura was born in Trinidad and came to England in 1961. His first full length play , As Time Goes By, was staged at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh and at the Royal Court, London. He won the Evening Standard's Most Promising Playwright Award in 1974 for Play Mas, which opened at the Royal Court and transferred to the West End. His other plays include Rum an' Coca Cola (Royal Court Theatre and off-Broadway, 1976); Another Tuesday and More, More (The Factory, London, 1978); A Dying Business (Riverside Studios, 1980); One Rule (Riverside Studios, 1981); Meetings ( New `York 1981 and Hampstead Theatre, London 1982)The Playboy of the West Indies (Oxford Playhouse, 1984, Tricycle Theatre , New York 1988 and produced for BBC television, 1985); Trinidad Sisters (Tricycle Theatre, 1988) and The Coup (Royal National Theatre, 1991).
He co-founded the Black Theatre Co-operative with the director Charlie Hanson in 1978 to stage the groundbreaking Welcome Home Jacko and subsequently to write the highly successful TV series No Problem!


Many of his plays have been seen in major cities in the USA, notably The Playboy of the West Indies, first staged by Oxford Playhouse (1984) and seen on BBC (1985). The Three Sisters was revived at Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 2006 and a national tour followed. In 2010 Rum an' Coca Cola was staged at West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, followed by a national tour. In 2015 Play Mas was revived at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond. The Royal National Theatre of Trinidad & Tobago staged a production of Play Mas in 2017 , followed by a production of Trinidad Sisters in 2018. Recognition of Mustapha's achievements include the George Devine Award and John Whiting Award in 1971 for As Time Goes By and the Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright Award in 1974 for Play Mas. Other awards include the Trinidad National Award, the Scarlet Ibis Gold in 1991, and the Helen Hayes Award in 1994 for A Small World. In 2014 he was the first recipient of the Alfred Fagon Award for Outstanding Contribution to Writing. He was made an Honorary Fellow of Goldsmiths, University of London in 2016.
Matura died in 2019 at the age of seventy-nine. A celebration of his life and work was held at the Young Vic in March 2020.


In April 2021 the Mustapha Matura Award and Mentoring Programme was launched, alongside The Alfred Fagon Award. The competition is open to newly emerging and young black playwrights of Caribbean and African descendant up to the age of 25 and includes a cash prize of £3,000 and a nine month mentoring programme with a leading Black British playwright.