Erik Gernand has produced media professionally since 1995 and has written and directed award-winning narrative short films that have screened at more than 100 festivals around the world.

His plays have been produced in New York, Chicago, Miami, and Washington, D.C., and range from dark drama to satire. “The Beautiful Dark” was the New Works Project Winner at T. Schreiber Studio in New York, and a finalist for the Woodward/Newman Drama Award. “A Place in the Woods” was nominated for a Jeff Award for Best New Work, and “The Kneeling Position” was a finalist for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference.

Erik has taught media and storytelling since 2005. He is a Senior Lecturer at Northwestern University, where he received the McCormick Distinguished Lectureship in 2016 and the McGalbut Outstanding Faculty Award in 2012. Erik also taught Comedy Writing at The Second City Training Center in Chicago. He created and organizes First-Year Filmmakers, an annual film festival for first-year RTF students at Northwestern University.