Laura Rikard

Laura Rikard, MFA, MA (SAG-AFTRA/AEA/SDC) is an intimacy choreographer and coordinator, director, actor and professor. She is Co-Founder and Head Faculty of Theatre Intimacy Education. Laura choreographs, consults, and teaches workshops on best practices for staging intimacy for professional and educational theatre and film across the country. She serves as the primary Intimacy Choreographer for the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. She is served as Intimacy Coordinator in film and television. Intimacy Coordinator credits film credits include: The Supremes at Earl’s All You Can Eat, Mother’s Instinct (Jessica Chastain & Anne Hathaway), Anything’s Possible, Interview With A Vampire, Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches, Appendage, and Harlem. Intimacy Choreographer credits include: Still… (Ensemble Theatre, NYC), West Side Story (Flat Rock Playhouse), Guess Who Is Coming To Dinner (Flat Rock Playhouse), Skeleton Crew (Bristol Riverside Theatre), among others. She is a contributor to the first book on theatre intimacy, Staging Sex: Best Practices, Tools and Techniques for Theatrical Intimacy by Chelsea Pace. As a director and actor, she has worked in film and television, NYC, regionally, on national tours, internationally and devised solo productions. She is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at the University of South Carolina Upstate. She is a recipient of the Best Acting award at the Virginia Film and has been named by Academic Keys as a "Who's Who in Fine Arts Education" Festival. She was honored with the Kennedy Center Medallion for her contributions to the Intimacy Discipline. She has served on faculty at Stephen F. Austin State University, Brown University, and the University of Miami. She received her MA in Acting from Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, MFA in Drama from the University of Virginia and her BA in Theatre from the College of Charleston. She is the mom of four-year-old twins. She is based in Asheville, NC.