Ellen McLaughlin

Who is Ellen McLaughlin?

Ellen McLaughlin is an American playwright and actor for stage and film. Her plays include Ajax in Iraq, Days and Nights Within, A Narrow Bed, Infinity's House, Iphigenia and Other Daughters, Tongue of a Bird, The Trojan Women, Helen, The Persians and Oedipus. Producers include: Actors' Theater of Louisville, The Actors’ Gang L.A., Classic Stage Co., N.Y., The Intiman Theater, Seattle, Almeida Theater, London, The Mark Taper Forum, L.A., the Public Theater in NYC, The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The National Actors’ Theater, N.Y.,and The Guthrie Theater, MN, among many other venues.

Grants and awards include: Great American Play Contest, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the NEA, the Writer's Award from the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, the Berilla Kerr Award for playwrighting, and the NEA/TCG Theatre Residency Grant.

McLaughlin is also an actor. She has worked on and Off Broadway as well as extensively in regional theater. She is most well known for having originated the part of the Angel in Tony Kushner's Angels in America, appearing in every U.S. production from its earliest workshops through its Broadway run. Other favorite roles include The Homebody in Homebody/Kabul, Pirate Jenny in Threepenny Opera, Mrs. Alving in Ghosts and Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the McCarter and the Paper Mill Playhouse.