Layla is an author of non-fiction and fiction. Her non-fiction includes The Queer Bookshelf, about the history, present and future of LGBTQ+ literature and Breaking the Rainbow Ceiling, about how being LGBTQ+ affects people's careers, for which she won the gold Axiom book award. Her debut novel is A Diplomat's Guide to Book Smuggling, historical fiction aboutdiplomats, queer books and bookshops in the 1970s.

Outside of writing, Layla has been recognised as one of the top 100 LGBTQ+ executives in the world, and features regularly in print and broadcast media, from The Financial Times to BBC's flagship programmes Question Time, Newsnight and The Today Programme on Radio 4, and her performance storytelling has featured on Netflix. She has held academic roles in universities around the world from the US to Japan and is the CEO of the Association of Directors of Public Health. She lives with her wife in London.