Brooklyn-born writer, performer, producer, and singer-songwriter Marla Mase is known for her gutsy, raw performance style and thought-provoking lyrics, emerging from the downtown NYC music and theatre scenes with a voice unapologetically her own.

Her work is informed by a gritty, poetic, and often humorous take on the human condition. Marla has performed for rapturous audiences from the Bowery to Beijing, with plays and rock operas staged at venues including La MaMa ETC, Nuyorican Poets Café, NYC SummerStage, NJPAC, White Eagle Hall, and SXSW, among others. Her work has been featured in HuffPost, Vents Magazine, Big Takeover, No Depression, Daytrotter, Paste Magazine, The Deli, American Blues Scene, PopDose, RockNYC, Americana Highways, York Calling, and Music Crowns.

Since 2023, Marla has been touring Being Somebody—a show she co-authored and performs with her father, Dr. Howard Mase—about coming of age in Brooklyn in the 1940s and 1970s. The piece has been performed Off-Broadway in NYC (Theatre Row/AMT) and throughout New York State, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Florida, with additional performances continuing to be presented nationally and abroad.

She has also toured extensively in the UK since 2023, performing with her band, The True Groove All-Stars, at tastemaking venues including Eel Pie Records, Rocka-Buy Records, More Coffee, The Old Road Tavern, Word on the Water, Peggy’s Skylight, and London’s legendary 100 Club. UK festival appearances include High Tide Twickenham, Cosmopolitan Arts Festival (Leicester), and Barefoot Festival (Midlands). US festival appearances include SXSW, Dewey Beach Music Conference (Delaware), MEOW Conference (Austin), Songwriter’s Circle (Nashville), Dodge Poetry Festival (NJ), and the UN First International Peace Conference in Linzhou, China, where she received a Messenger of Peace Award from the Friends of the UN for her visionary work as a songwriter and performer. She returns to the UK and Europe in Summer 2026 in support of her 10th album, The Midnight Show.

In 2024, Marla founded The Lael Project a mental health initiative created in honor of her daughter, Lael Summer, who died by suicide in 2017. Rooted in Lael’s wish to “help just one person” and Marla’s belief in the power of music and storytelling, The Lael Project is dedicated to presenting hope for those struggling with depression, suicidal thoughts, and other mental health conditions.

In addition to her performance work, Marla facilitates The AS IS Workshop, an intergenerational creative space for women that emerged from her personal journey through loss and her work with The Lael Project.

"Mase, a rising star and buzzed-about figure within New York’s underground rock ‘n’ roll scene, isn’t the kind of female artist we’ve gotten used to hearing in the post-millennial music circuit. In an age where two of the biggest stars on the planet are female artists who take inspiration from classic singer/songwriter traditions, Mase goes unapologetically in the other direction. Her songs are dark, atmospheric, and gritty, and littered with shades of punk rock history."
— AbsolutePunk