Alex Henrikson Laupus
Explores real women fighting the fantastical and monstrous.
Alex is a screenwriter, actress, and Professor of Acting at the Old Globe and University of San Diego’s Shiley Graduate Theater Program. She is based in LA. She is the founder of The Writer’s Crucible.
Holding degrees from New York University (BFA) and The Yale School of Drama (MFA) with training at Upright Citizen’s Brigade, Alex has worked as a professional actress for the past eighteen years. As an actress she appeared on Broadway in Larry David’s Fish in the Dark, Manhattan Theater Club’s Snow Geese, and world premiered plays including Steve Martin’s Meteor Shower and The Roundhouse Theater’s Ironbound, for which she was nominated for a Helen Hayes award. She has appeared on stages across America including at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, California Shakespeare Festival, The Alliance Theater, The Women’s Project, Williamstown, St. Anne’s Warehouse, The Geffen and more. She was directed by Taika Waititi in What We Do In The Shadows on FX, performed opposite Emma Stone in Maniac on Netflix directed by Cory Joji Fukunaga and starred in various indie features. She is a founding member of The Familiars DND on YouTube.
While acting at The Old Globe, she met Jenna Fischer who encouraged her to write for the screen. But she had other plans. She was going to be a wolf biologist at Yellowstone National Park. Did she have the requisite skills or training? No! After suffering a stinging rejection from Yellowstone, she sold her half hour comedy National Parker to WB and FreeForm, which Jenna Fischer executive produced. She has sold scripts to Walden Studios, Balcony 9 (film coming 2026), and Concordia Studios. As for theater, her punk-rock musical Bones in the Basket was selected for an Araca Project Fellowship and premiered Off-Broadway. Her sea shanty opera Erebus and Terror premiered at the Yale Cabaret. Her writing has appeared in American Theater Magazine, Flaunt, A Book Of and Rogue.
During the Pandemic, Alex discovered she loved coaching and mentoring other actors. Now, that love of coaching has become The Writer’s Crucible. T.W.C. is a space with the goal of empowering actors to write their own work. She has since coached numerous features, shorts and pilots which have premiered at SXSW, Sitges, Austin, were featured on the Black List, won various competitions and have been purchased by major studios. She is passionate about story that comes from a character’s want intersecting with what a character needs to grow. She has developed the Hero’s Abyss Story Structure to teach actors and writers how to tell imaginative and inevitable stories driven by a hero’s need.
Alex is a screenwriter, actress, and Professor of Acting at the Old Globe and University of San Diego’s Shiley Graduate Theater Program. She is based in LA. She is the founder of The Writer’s Crucible.
Holding degrees from New York University (BFA) and The Yale School of Drama (MFA) with training at Upright Citizen’s Brigade, Alex has worked as a professional actress for the past eighteen years. As an actress she appeared on Broadway in Larry David’s Fish in the Dark, Manhattan Theater Club’s Snow Geese, and world premiered plays including Steve Martin’s Meteor Shower and The Roundhouse Theater’s Ironbound, for which she was nominated for a Helen Hayes award. She has appeared on stages across America including at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, California Shakespeare Festival, The Alliance Theater, The Women’s Project, Williamstown, St. Anne’s Warehouse, The Geffen and more. She was directed by Taika Waititi in What We Do In The Shadows on FX, performed opposite Emma Stone in Maniac on Netflix directed by Cory Joji Fukunaga and starred in various indie features. She is a founding member of The Familiars DND on YouTube.
While acting at The Old Globe, she met Jenna Fischer who encouraged her to write for the screen. But she had other plans. She was going to be a wolf biologist at Yellowstone National Park. Did she have the requisite skills or training? No! After suffering a stinging rejection from Yellowstone, she sold her half hour comedy National Parker to WB and FreeForm, which Jenna Fischer executive produced. She has sold scripts to Walden Studios, Balcony 9 (film coming 2026), and Concordia Studios. As for theater, her punk-rock musical Bones in the Basket was selected for an Araca Project Fellowship and premiered Off-Broadway. Her sea shanty opera Erebus and Terror premiered at the Yale Cabaret. Her writing has appeared in American Theater Magazine, Flaunt, A Book Of and Rogue.
During the Pandemic, Alex discovered she loved coaching and mentoring other actors. Now, that love of coaching has become The Writer’s Crucible. T.W.C. is a space with the goal of empowering actors to write their own work. She has since coached numerous features, shorts and pilots which have premiered at SXSW, Sitges, Austin, were featured on the Black List, won various competitions and have been purchased by major studios. She is passionate about story that comes from a character’s want intersecting with what a character needs to grow. She has developed the Hero’s Abyss Story Structure to teach actors and writers how to tell imaginative and inevitable stories driven by a hero’s need.