Video
Video of me performing
 on stage and film.

I am more than ready to play anything, but hey, I ain't made to play everything. We all have these wonderful diverse characters inside of us, that make up who we are, of varying age, background, ideals---I really enjoy challenging stereotypes, taking risks, being a precise scientist of human behavior, and in general, making people crack up.


Erica Lauren McLaughlin is an actress and consultant 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), T. Schreiber Studio (NY), Gene Frankel Theater (NY), American Theatre for Actors (NY), Atlas Performing Arts Center (DC), Theatre Project (Baltimore), Queens Theater in the Park (NY) UMBC, among others. 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 the Inaugural Capital Fringe Festival, and at Bellarmine University in Louisville, KY. Erica is 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 BFA in Acting. A continuing student, Erica has since studied as several prestigious acting schools including the Shakespeare Theater Company and HB Studio, and most recently with the renowned T. Schreiber Studio. While at T. Schreiber Studio, Erica appeared in the 2010 New York Innovative Theater Award winner for Outstanding Production  Balm in Gilead, written by the late Lanford Wilson. She is also the lead of the film Cold April, a short film about the genocide in Rwanda and winner of several awards in the Chicago Intl Film Festival, International Black Film Fest of Nashville, and the New Orleans film fest, to name a few. Also an experienced educator, Erica has taught in multiple disciplines, currently as a consultant for other actors and performing artists looking to master the work of their art.

Erica is a former member of the NAACP National Board of Directors, where she represented youth advocates from MD, VA and DC. As a youth organizer, she has 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 “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.”