Biography
Erica Cruz Hernández is an award-winning AEA/SAG actor, voice/text coach, and director whose work primarily focuses on creative liberation through liberation of the artist’s authentic voice.
As a performer and director, she has had the privilege of joining some of the first all-Latiné casts in classical regional spaces and has worked at Tony Award–winning regional theatres across the country, including the Denver Center for the Performing Arts and American Players Theatre. Her screen work includes the independent supernatural horror feature Legado, currently on the festival circuit, as well as A Place To Be (En Algún Lugar), alongside numerous independent shorts, features, and commercials; her television credits include STARZ, NBC, and HBO.
Her teaching experience spans the American Musical and Dramatic Academy (NYC), Roosevelt University, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, as well as guest workshops at Binghamton University, Oakland University, and Saint Louis University.
Before her time in New York, she served as a casting consultant/coordinator for the Latinx Theatre Commons 2018 Carnaval of New Latinx Work, Chicago Children’s Theatre, and the former ALTA Chicago (Alliance of Latinx Theatre Artists), as well as Chicago’s Spanish Language Aguijón Theater Company, where she was also a member of the performance ensemble. Prior to returning to her artistic practice, she was a Chicago talent agent who developed and booked actors for numerous films, theatrical productions, print projects, commercials, and television shows.
Education
- MFA, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Shakespeare Folio Technique, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre
Teaching Interests
- Voice and Speech, Linklater
- Acting for the Camera
- Business of Acting
- Shakespeare
Honors and Awards
- Kate Neal Kinley Fellowship
- Henry Award Outstanding New Play, Godspeed ensemble member
- Best Feature Film, Legado ensemble, Northern Horror Film Festival
- Encuentro Latinx Theatre Commons Attendee Grant