Erla Brynjarsdóttir

Erla was born in a small town in Iceland called Keflavik. At the age of 5 she was certain she wanted to play the violin and with a lot of help from her mother and teachers she found herself at the age of 9 playing solo with the Icelandic symphony orchestra, the well-known folk piece Czardas by Monti. Two years later she proudly played as a representative for Iceland at the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan in 1998.

At the age of 16 she expanded her knowledge from classical training into different type of violin playing such as improvisation, folk, music, jazz, rock and blues. Dan Cassidy was her teacher for two years and they together recorded her first CD.

Being so involved with her violin playing, it wasn’t until college when Erla realized her love of acting and theatre, portraying the part of Magenta in the theatre adaptation of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. In 2008 Erla moved to England for a three year study and gained a BA (Hons) degree in American Theatre Arts from Rose Bruford College. There she played many roles including Helen of Troy in Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad; Mary Tilford in Lillian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour and Helen in Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal. Erla also trained in Texas where she lived for a year, studying and performingin large-scale productions such as Georg Buchner’s Woyzeck, in which she was cast the leading role of Marie.

Only a few months after graduation Erla was hired and cast as a Storyteller at a Spanish theatre company for 7 months. She lived in Valencia but performed and travelled all over Spain to visit primary schools and teach Spanish children English through theatre. The shows were Pinocchio and Hamelin the flutist devised by Erla and her director, Eduard Costa Gonzalvo.

Erla collaborated with Blind Tiger Theatre Company from England in December 2013 – January 2014. The show was an adaptation of Hans Christian’s story The Little Mermaid with live music. Her roles were Seawitch, Princess, The Little Mermaid’s sister and Jette Thyberg. The show premiered 10th of December in Riverside Studios in Hammersmith.

Erla has appeared in various commercials in Iceland and recently took part in a German TV film called Ein Sommer in Island.

At the moment Erla is collaborating with three talented male actors, devising a show filled with the magic of the Christmas spirit. The show is called The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year and will be premiered 9th of December 2015 in Bæjarbíó, Hafnarfjörður.