Erik Jensen, along with his wife Jesica Blank, is a multihyphenate husband creative team who the New Yorker calls “the foremost practitioners of documentary theater in the U.S.”
As a team, they are authors of The Exonerated, a genre-defining play based on interviews they conducted with death row exonerees across the US (Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Ovation, Fringe First, Herald Angel Awards; NAACP Image Award nominee; awards from the American Bar Association, The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, named “Best Play of the Year” by the New York Times). Erik and Jessica adapted The Exonerated into an award-winning TV movie starring Danny Glover, Delroy Lindo and Susan Sarandon. Their documentary play Aftermath, based on interviews conducted with Iraqi refugees in Jordan, was a NYT Critics Pick and nominated for two Drama League awards. Their play How to Be a Rock Critic (based on the writings of Lester Bangs), created in partnership with the Lester Bangs estate, played sold-out runs at the Kirk Douglas, Steppenwolf, and the Public Theater, with Erik starring and Jessica directing. Jessica and Erik are currently adapting it for feature film with Cameron Crowe as Creative Consultant.
Their 2020 play Coal Country, about West Virginia’s Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster, had a critically acclaimed world premiere at the Public Theater, with original music written and performed by Grammy-award winning musician Steve Earle (Edgerton New Play Award, 2 Drama Desk noms, Lortel Award nom). When its run was cut short by COVID, the pair pivoted and wrote The Line, a documentary play based on firsthand interviews with NYC medical first responders at the height of the pandemic, starring Lorraine Toussaint, Alison Pill, John Ortiz, and Nicholas Pinnock. Also, a NYT Critics’ Pick, The Line garnered rave reviews from coast to coast and was viewed by over 85,000 people in 50 countries. Coal Country reopened commercially at the Cherry Lane Theater in 2022 to critical acclaim, produced by the Public and Audible, and was recorded for Audible Theater (Signal Award for Best Drama). They are currently at work on a major new musical under commission from the Public Theater.
Their first scripted feature as writer/directors, Almost Home, based on Jessica’s novel of the same name, was released by Vertical in 2019; their second, Brooklyn, Minnesota, starring Erik and Amy Madigan, world premiered at the Woodstock Film Festival in October 2024, where it won Best Film and Best Director; it had its west coast premiere at Newport Beach and is currently on the festival circuit. They currently have two features in active development: How to Be A Rock Critic, with Cameron Crowe as Creative Consultant and Michael Chernus attached as Lester Bangs, and a comedy feature, The Last Review, with Donna Murphy, Santino Fontana, Krysta Rodriguez, Ashlie Atkinson, Amir Arison, Joel Marsh Garland, Cathy Curtin and more.
For television, Jessica and Erik currently have projects in development with David Simon/Blown Deadline, Levinson/Fontana, and Ed Burns (The Wire, Generation Kill). They wrote the pilot The Negotiator for Gaumont TV (EP Tom Fontana) and have developed with Fox TV Studios, 20th Century TV, Levinson/Fontana, Avenue Pictures, Sunswept, Virgin Produced, and Radical Media. They are also currently filming a feature documentary about the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster, produced by Emmy-nominated and Peabody Award winning producer Audrey Rosenberg (I Am Not Your Negro, HBO’s Katrina Babies) and executive produced, scored, and narrated by Steve Earle.
As an actor, Erik appeared regularly in both seasons of ABC’s For Life (EP 50 Cent). Other TV credits include arcs on The Walking Dead, Mindhunter, Mr. Robot, The Americans, and over 90 other film and TV roles including his critically acclaimed portrayal of legendary NY Yankee Thurman Munson in The Bronx Is Burning. Theater credits include The Collaboration on Broadway opposite Paul Bettany and Jeremy Pope, Lincoln Center’s Pulitzer Prize winning production of Disgraced, Tracey Scott Wilson’s The Good Negro at the Public (dir. Liesl Tommy), and Vladimir at MTC (dir. Daniel Sullivan). Jessica’s TV and film acting credits include Ramy, Prodigal Son, For Life, High Maintenance, and dozens more.
Jessica is a Professor in the Drama Division at the Juilliard School. As an actress in television, she appeared regularly in the CBS drama “Made in Jersey” and has also appeared in Blue Bloods, Elementary, The Mentalist, Bored to Death, Rescue Me, and Law and Order: Criminal Intent. In film, she has appeared in The Namesake, Slender Man, The Exonerated, and You’re Nobody ’til Somebody Kills You. In addition, she has over a dozen indie credits including “Creative Control” (Grand Jury Prize, SXSW 2015) and On the Road With Judas (Sundance).
Jessica and Erik live in Brooklyn with their daughter Sadie Jensen-Blank.
