bio

Eric T. Roth’s work has appeared on Comedy Central, Buzzfeed, EPIX and Hard Times News. His first feature film “The F!@# Happened” was produced by Laff Mobb Enterprises. As a sketch comedian and improviser, he has performed at UCB, Second City, Improv Olympic, TBS’s Just For Laughs New Voices and toured with viral board game Cards Against Humanity live shows.

His work has been called “winsome,” and “loosey-goosey” with an “insanely confident… swaggering sensibility.” Recently, his short films have garnered several awards, including Best Dark Comedy at the Portland Comedy Film Festival. His feature screenplay The Slasher was a Second-Rounder at the prestigious Austin Film Fest in 2019.

Eric is from Chicago. He graduated from University of Illinois with a degree in Gender and Women’s Studies. He lives in Los Angeles with his fiancée.

The long version

Eric T. Roth grew up in a family of gymnasts and dancers on the North side of Chicago. Even though his father owns one of the most prestigious gymnastics training facilities in the country, Eric was never much of an athlete. As a child he would climb into the gym’s rafters and quietly read sci-fi and fantasy novels.

Eric started writing in high school. His pretentiously-titled short story The Consequences of an Interminable Lexicon was published in the high school literary magazine. After that tiny taste of teenage success he was hooked.

He produced his first play The Couch when he was seventeen, the same year he became a founding member of the Backyard Theater Company. At University of Illinois, Eric was cast in the long-running sketch comedy group Potted Meat and its sister improv team Spicy Clamato. Inspired by 80s punk rock, Eric’s performances leaned into a “DIY spectacle” aesthetic through the use of excessive cardboard props, big characters, and lots of fake blood.

While in college, Eric started sketch comedy group The Other Other Guys. After graduation, they moved to Chicago and quickly rose the ranks of the city’s famous underground comedy scene, selling out Chicago sketch festivals and late-night shows at Improv Olympic. The Other Other Guys were invited to perform at Sketchfest New York, TBS Just For Laughs Festival, and on Tosh.0.

In L.A., Eric developed the web-series (Erics Walk) and pilot (VDate) with BiteSize TV. He linked up with Producers Arthur Spivak (Just Shoot Me) and Bob Sumner (Def Comedy Jam) to develop Laff Mobb’s first feature film The F!@# Happened which went into production in 2018. Eric developed his Veep-meets-Game of Thrones pilot with Mason Novick (Juno, 500 Days of Summer). Working with director Chris Guerrero, Eric co-wrote the screenplay for the short film Car Stealers— an homage to the cult classic Repo Man. The two of them kickstarted the film for $30,000 and went on to win awards in Portland, Mississippi, and Toronto.

Recently, Eric has begun doing readings of his screenplays in Los Angeles. His pilot, West of Pulaski, is about a Chicago punk rocker trying to raise her autistic son while addressing her own toxicity. His feature screenplay The Slasher—a recent second-rounder at the Austin Film Festival—is about a serial killer whose grown sick of the job. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter @erictroth to stay in the loop!