Meet Laura Elizabeth Dennis
I’m a New York City–based actor, stage manager, screenwriter, and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. My background in psychotherapy—including training in trauma-informed care, CBT, Jungian analysis, the Gottman Method, and Emotionally Focused Therapy—deeply informs my work, shaping how I understand human behavior, emotional patterns, and relationships.
Over the past four years, I’ve trained in Meisner technique, Uta Hagen–based work, and improvisation while building experience across short films, student films, theater, and commercial projects. I’m drawn to complex, character-driven stories that explore the contradictions of human nature with honesty, specificity, and depth.
I recently starred in A Humorless Exploration of Humanity, which made its world debut at The Manifestival in New York City. I’m continuing to pursue acting across film and theater while expanding my work as a storyteller through screenwriting. I’m currently developing both a short film and a feature film, with a particular interest in intimate, psychologically driven stories that examine relationships, identity, and the complexities of being human.
The Work
I’m a New York City–based actor, screenwriter, stage manager, and emerging producer originally from Chandler, Arizona. My work is rooted in a deep curiosity about human behavior, shaped by my clinical background, my experiences in the world beyond traditional training spaces, and a lifelong interest in the ways people tell stories.
I hold a Master’s degree in Marriage and Family Counseling from Prescott College and a background in social work from Arizona State University, with clinical training in trauma, relationships, and emotional patterning. That perspective informs how I approach storytelling and character—looking beyond surface behavior to understand what drives people, where they get stuck, and how they change.
As an actor, I’ve trained across Meisner, Uta Hagen, improvisation, and scene study. I studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse as a full-time conservatory student with teachers including Gary Kingston, Todd Susman, and Sandy Faison, and have continued my training through advanced scene study, sensory work, physical training, dialect work, and stage and weapons combat. I’ve also trained at HB Studio and with Michael Luggio.
My work is also shaped by time spent outside the studio. I’m trained in survival and primitive backpacking, and spent a year backpacking through the terrains of Arizona, Washington, and Oregon. I’ve worked as a dog musher in Alaska, lived and worked on an off-the-grid farm in Costa Rica, and volunteered with an NGO in Cambodia. These experiences have deepened my understanding of resilience, culture, adaptation, and the many ways people navigate the world around them.
Behind the scenes, I’ve worked as a stage manager, an experience that has given me a deep respect for the collaborative and practical side of storytelling. Stage management has taught me how creative visions become productions—through communication, organization, problem-solving, and the ability to bring together many moving parts in service of a shared vision.
That experience has naturally expanded my interest in producing. I’m increasingly drawn to the process of developing and shaping projects from the ground up: finding compelling stories, supporting artists, collaborating across departments, and helping carry a project from its earliest idea through production and into the world. I’m particularly interested in producing intimate, character-driven film and theater that has something meaningful to say.
Screenwriting has become another extension of that creative process. Writing allows me to explore character from the inside out and think about story not only as a performer, but as someone interested in the larger architecture of a project.
Across acting, writing, stage management, and producing, I’m interested in the same fundamental question: What makes a story feel human, specific, and worth telling?
