Michael James Marra is a Scottish Labour politician who has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for North East Scotland since May 2021.

Michael Marra was born in Dundee in 1979. He joined the Labour Party as a teenager.^[1]

Marra was educated at St John's High School, the University of Glasgow and the London School of Economics.^[1]

Before becoming an MSP, Marra worked for Oxfam and the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science at the University of Dundee.^[2]

Michael Marra was elected as a councillor in Dundee's Lochee ward in 2017.^[3] He stood down at the 2022 Scottish Parliament election.

Marra previously worked for Scottish Labour Leader Iain Gray as an advisor prior to and during the 2011 Scottish Parliamentary election.^[2]

In November 2020, Marra was confirmed as a candidate on Labour's regional list for the North East, coinciding with his sister Jenny Marra announcing that she would not seek re-election to the Scottish Parliament.^[4]

On 8 May 2021 Marra was elected as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for North East Scotland.^[5] He had been appointed as Education and Skills spokesperson in Scottish Labour's campaign cabinet just before the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections.^[6] He was retained as Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills after the election. ^[7]

He has described himself as being part of Labour's "soft left".^[8]

In 2021 Michael Marra won the Holyrood magazine “One For The Watching” award, a newcomer award judged by a panel made up of senior MSPs, journalists, and Scotland’s two top pollsters.^[8]

In April 2023 it was announced he would take on the role of Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Finance ^[9]

Michael Marra is married and has three children.^[1]

He is a lifelong Dundee United supporter.^[11]

His uncle is the Dundonian folk singer Michael Marra,^[8] who died in 2012.

Michael Marra has an interest in the history and writings of Abraham Lincoln.^[12]