Erik Jensen

Erik Jensen and his wife Jessica Blank are a multi-hyphenate husband and wife creative team who the New Yorker calls “the foremost practitioners of documentary theater in the U.S.”

Erik graduated with a BFA in acting from Carnegie Mellon, and has been working for over 30 years.  He appeared regularly in both seasons of ABC’s For Life (EP 50 Cent); other TV credits include arcs on The Walking Dead, Mindhunter, Mr. Robot, The Americans, appearances on Doc, The Equalizer, Modern Love, all the Law & Orders, and over 90 other film and TV roles including his critically acclaimed portrayal of legendary NY Yankee Thurman Munson in The Bronx Is Burning. Theater credits include The Collaboration on Broadway, Lincoln Center’s Pulitzer Prize winning production of Disgraced, Tracey Scott Wilson’s The Good Negro at the Public, and Vladimir at MTC (dir. Daniel Sullivan). 

With Jessica, he is co-author of The Exonerated, a genre-defining play based on interviews conducted with death row exonerees (Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Ovation, Fringe First, Herald Angel Awards; NAACP Image Award nominee; awards from the American Bar Association, The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, named “Best Play of the Year” by the New York Times). Erik and Jessica adapted The Exonerated into an award-winning movie starring Danny Glover, Delroy Lindo and Susan Sarandon. Their doc play Aftermath, based on interviews with Iraqi refugees, was a NYT Critics Pick and nominated for two Drama League awards. Their play How to Be a Rock Critic (based on the writings of Lester Bangs) played sold-out runs at the Kirk Douglas, Steppenwolf, and the Public Theater, with Erik starring and Jessica directing.  Their 2020 play Coal Country, about West Virginia’s Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster, had a critically acclaimed world premiere at the Public Theater, with original music written and performed by Grammy-award winning musician Steve Earle (Edgerton New Play Award, 2 Drama Desk noms, Lortel Award nom).  It was recorded for Audible Theater (Signal Award for Best Drama).  The Line, their documentary play based on interviews with NYC medical first responders at the height of the pandemic, garnered rave reviews, and was viewed by over 85,000 people in 50 countries. They are currently at work on a major new musical under commission from the Public Theater.

Their first scripted feature film as writer/directors, Almost Home, based on Jessica’s novel, was released by Vertical in 2019; their second, Brooklyn, Minnesota, starring Erik and Amy Madigan, world premiered at the Woodstock Film Festival where it won Best Film and Best Director; it won Best Fiction Feature at the Minneapolis-St Paul International Film Festival and the Audience Award at the Rochester Film Festival. They currently have two features in active development: How to Be A Rock Critic, Michael Chernus attached as Lester Bangs, and a comedy feature, The Last Review, with Daniel Radcliffe, Jason Alexander, Donna Murphy, Santino Fontana, Krysta Rodriguez, Ashlie Atkinson, Amir Arison, Joel Marsh Garland, Cathy Curtin and more.