Robin Larsen is a Los Angeles-based director working in theatre and behind the camera, known for “so many superlative productions” (Hollywood Reporter).
She is the recipient of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Lifetime Achievement in Directing and is the Founding Artistic Director of Lobby Theatre, in residence at Joe and Anthony Russo’s AGBO Films in downtown Los Angeles. Dedicated to plays and playwrights that illuminate the social and moral challenges of the 21st century, Lobby launched in 2023 with Pulitzer Prize-finalist Aleshea Harris’s Is God Is.
Robin’s stage work has been seen at South Coast Repertory, The Wallis Annenberg Center, and Disney Hall, with the LA Philharmonic, among others. As a founding member of Rogue Machine Theater, Robin directed the west coast premiere of Joel Drake Johnson’s Four Places, which won the Ovation, Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, and Backstage Garland Awards for Best Production. Also for Rogue Machine, she staged the Los Angeles premiere of David Harrower’s Blackbird (LA Times, LA Weekly, Huffington Post, KCRW “Best of Year” lists, and LA Times “Best Theatre of the Decade”).
Robin is passionate about new plays, relishing the opportunity to get inside the head of a living playwright. Other regional and world premieres include the world premiere of Keith Huff’s Pursued by Happiness, the west coast premiere of Jesse Eisenberg’s The Revisionist, starring Tony-winner Deanna Dunagan, the west coast premiere of Joel Drake Johnson’s The Fall to Earth at the Odyssey Theatre, starring JoBeth Williams, and the Los Angeles premiere of Lauren Gunderson’s I and You at the Fountain Theatre.
Robin approaches classics as if they were new plays, looking for what will engage and activate modern audiences. She’s worked several times with the Antaeus Company, where she helmed the West Coast premiere of Annie Baker’s adaptation of Uncle Vanya. Her production of Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance for Odyssey Theatre Ensemble starred Susan Sullivan and David Selby as Agnes and Tobias and won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Prize for Best Revival.
Robin was born and raised in Miami, Florida, and attended the New World School of the Arts. After a four-year stop in Dallas, TX, where she earned a BFA in Acting from SMU, she continued west to Los Angeles, where another degree followed: an MFA in Film Directing/Production from UCLA. While at UCLA, she won the Student Academy Award, the DGA Student Film Award, and the Princess Grace Award.
After grad school, Robin collaborated on numerous film and TV projects with Joe and Anthony Russo, wrote for Imagine Entertainment and Universal Pictures, and had her work screen internationally at Cannes and Berlinale and stateside at Tribeca and Austin.
In the back and forth between stage and screen, Robin sees her role as relatively the same: as the orchestrating storyteller, helming collaborators in temporary community to tell clear and compelling stories. Committed to equity, diversity, and inclusion, she values a collaborative rehearsal room and a respectful and efficient set.
Robin is a respected acting coach for working actors and teaches acting at Pepperdine University. She is a proud member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Guild and an emeritus member of the Writer’s Guild of America.
