About Robin

Robin Larsen is a director working in theatre and behind the camera in Los Angeles.

Over the past decade she has established herself as a go-to Los Angeles theatre director known for “so many superlative productions” (Hollywood Reporter), receiving the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Career Achievement in Directing in 2014.

Her stage directing work has been seen at South Coast Repertory, The Wallis Annenberg Center, and Disney Hall with the LA Philharmonic. For Rogue Machine, where she was a founding member, she directed the west coast premiere of Joel Drake Johnson’s Four Places, which won the triple crown of the season: the Ovation, Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and Backstage Garland Award for Best Production. Also for Rogue Machine, she staged the Los Angeles premiere of David Harrower’s Blackbird (Best of Year lists: LA Times, LA Weekly, Huffington Post, KCRW, 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. 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 Award-winner Deanna Dunagun, the west coast premiere of The Fall To Earth, also by Joel Johnson, 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’s films have screened at festivals around the world including Cannes, Tribeca, and Berlinale. Screen directing credits include No. 6, produced by Joe Russo, starring Ron Perlman, and the web series Sex & Marriage, produced by Justin Lin, which Robin co-created with writer John Pollono.

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. She values a collaborative rehearsal room and an efficient set. She is committed to equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Robin was born and raised in Miami, Florida. After a 4-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. In grad school she won the Student Academy Award for her first ever film, Sombra, which Variety called “a surreal and evocative film”. She was the proud recipient of the Princess Grace Award, and a DGA Award for dark comedy Out of Habit, about a nun’s revenge on the milkman.

Robin is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Guild, and an Emeritus member of WGA. She lives in woodsy Woodland Hills with her TV associate director husband, David, and their sweet Caroline. As the golden rule inspires, she endeavors everyday to treat others with respect and kindness.