Elisabeth Karlin thought she would become a great actress. That didn’t happen. Instead, she took all those years of scene study, improv sessions, and drama classes and put what she learned into writing plays. Plays that have since been produced Off-Broadway, been published, and have won multiple awards.

She has found drama and plenty of laughs in an office of women; a motel in Florida; a cancer hospital; the streets of New York; on the American roads of a cross-country odyssey; a high school in the Bronx; Hollywood; and a lifeboat in the eye of a Long Island storm. Her stories spring forth from the characters that live in them. She is touched by all humanity from mountain gorillas to pin-up models (yes, she considers apes human) and is especially alive to the voices of outsiders and their struggle to survive.

As an essayist, Elisabeth writes about movies with a particular interest in the films of Alfred Hitchcock. She has lately joined the ranks of Hitchcock scholarship as an international lecturer and writer on his work.

She lives in New York City with her husband, Josh, and their dog, Dix, who is named for her favorite Film Noir hooligan.