Laura Shatkus is an actor and director hailing from Chicago where she trained for both the stage and camera for 10 plus years before earning an MFA in Acting from the University of Arkansas in 2015.

For over 20 years, she has worked professionally in theatre in Chicago and regionally at The Berkshire Theatre Group, Florida Repertory Theatre, The Hippodrome Theatre, North Dakota Shakespeare Theatre, TheatreSquared, The Gift Theatre, and Collaboraction, among others.

Recent film acting credits include The Threesome (with Zoey Deutch), Red Camellia (with Sean Bridgers), and The Magician’s Raincoat (in which she plays a wicked witch).

As a director, she has staged the opera Hansel und Gretel twice as well as Matthew AuCoin’s contemporary opera, Second Nature. The Arkansas Arts Council awarded her with an Individual Artist Fellowship for her Community Engagement work on Hold Fast, an interactive original play performed for low-income households and communities especially affected by isolation, during the pandemic.

Carving, a 17 minute short film which she co-directed, shot in a single, continuous take, has made the festival circuit and was recently awarded best Arkansas Short at the El Dorado Film Festival in 2025 and Best Short Film at the Phoenixville Film Festival.

Fun Facts...​

• Trained extensively in Shakespeare's Folio Technique and is available for text coaching.

• Directs everything from social media spots to music festival happenings and opera.

• Writes and casts educational video games for The Tesseract Center for Immersive Environments and Game Design and Causeway Games.

• Avid outdoors woman versed in kayaking, hiking, and finding secret swimming holes.