How old was Shakespeare when he started writing plays?

A lack of records makes it difficult to determine exactly when William Shakespeare began writing his plays.  He became an actor in the mid or late 1580s.  He began his work as a playwright in the late 1580s or early 1590s.  His first known and confirmed plays were Henry VI, parts I-III, and Richard III.  There are records of his plays being performed in the theater in the early 1590s.  In the early 1590s, Shakespeare changed his focus and began writing narrative style poetry instead of plays.  This shift may have been entirely because of a significantly widespread plague epidemic that swept across London, which caused theaters to close.  After the theaters opened once again, Shakespeare's focus shifted back to writing plays.  He began writing plays that were in other genres besides history.