Actress. Playwright. Activist.
Erica Lauren McLaughlin
is an actress and playwright with a passion for youth activism. As an actress, she has performed on stage at the John F. Kennedy Center (DC), the New York Fringe Festival, PS 122 (NY), Gene Frankel Theater (NY), Roy Arias Theatres (NY), American Theatre for Actors (NY), Atlas Performing Arts Center (DC), Theatre Project (Baltimore), Liberty Showcase Theatre (Baltimore), UMBC, and in commercial and film. As a playwright, she received the 2001 National ACT-SO gold medal for playwriting, and her plays have been produced at the Mobtown Theatre in Baltimore, in Washington DC’s Inaugural Capital Fringe Festival, and at Bellarmine University in Louisville, KY.

Although her training is as a performer, she has a knack for the business side of theatre. Erica currently works as a Patron Services Representative for Theatre Development Fund at the TKTS Booth in Times Square, NYC. Erica is also former Managing Director of the Unmentionable Theatre Company of Baltimore, MD, a socially conscious theatre troupe which is comprised of members all under the age of 30.

A well-rounded theatre artist, Erica is also trained as a puppeteer, dancer, and improviser. Erica graduated cum laude from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) in May 2006 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting. At UMBC, she founded the 24 Hour play festival as well as the Wednesday Reading Series for new plays. She also attended Howard Community College, and in that short year, she served as Vice President of the Student Government Association, helped to organize an NAACP chapter there, and was the sole student member of the College Council. A continuing student, Erica has since studied as several prestigious acting schools including the Shakespeare Theater Company and HB Studio, and is currently with the renowned T. Schreiber Studio.

An experienced educator, Erica has taught in multiple disciplines, instructing classes in acting, tap, ballet, musical theatre, coaching dance teams, creative storytelling/writing, and most recently, puppetry. She has also taught for multiple years training classes on giving excellent service in the restaurant industry.

Erica McLaughlin is a former member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) National Board of Directors, the world’s largest and oldest civil rights organization, where she represented youth advocates from Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. She has served at all levels in the association, beginning as a member of a local unit, to serving on the Board’s Executive Committee, and as Vice Chair of several Board committees. As a youth organizer, she has been interviewed by several local and national publications, and executed many successful civil rights campaigns, including organizing a 2006 rally on Capitol Hill of 700 youth to support the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act, and writing and delivering the obituary at the famed “Funeral for the “N” Word in 2007 in Detroit Michigan. Erica doesn’t see her activism and community service as separate from her career as an artist. In fact, playwright William Inge summed up Erica McLaughlin’s diverse passions best, saying, “Theatre is, of course, a reflection of life. Maybe we have to improve life before we can hope to improve theatre.”