Gretchen Egolf

Gretchen Egolf (born September 9, 1973) is an American theater, film and television actress.

Egolf was born and raised in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

She is the daughter of artist Paula Egolf and stepfather Gary Egolf.

Her brother was the writer Tristan Egolf.

Her younger half-brother is British-American musician Siegfried Faith.

Egolf earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Juilliard School and also took acting classes at The Actors Center.

Egolf was married to actor Mason Phillips in 1999.

The couple divorced a few years later.

Egolf has been involved in a number of artist films and videos, including Beth Campbell’s Some Things Change (2005), and Adam Chodzko’s video installation Knots at Tate Britain (2013) as well as Chodzko's radio and performance piece, Rising (2013), for solo actor, which she performed live in Newcastle, UK at the Great North Run/British Science Festival, and at Manchester University, UK at the Ways of Seeing Climate Change conference (October 2013).

Egolf has also created written works, such as her invited guest contribution to the online experimental art curatorial project Out of Focus.

She also wrote a blog of her rehearsal experience playing Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire at The Guthrie Theater.

As a director and producer; Egolf created and directed the short film Sonnet 147 for the New York Shakespeare Exchange’s Sonnet Project and co-produced and starred in the short film Speck’s Last and the web series Selectmen.

Egolf is a teacher of the Michael Chekhov acting technique.

She has taught in the US at The Guthrie Theater and Barrington Stage Company, as well as independent classes in New York City, and in London at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and independent classes.

Gretchen Egolf is most known for her various television roles, including Journeyman (NBC, 2007), Roswell (WB, 2000), and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC, 2009–2012), among others, and the TV movies The Two Mr. Kissels (Lifetime 2008) and Gleason (CBS, 2002).

Her film roles include The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Namesake, and Quiz Show.

After winning the Michel St. Denis Award for an Exceptional Graduating Drama Student from the Juilliard School, Egolf went on to perform on Broadway in Jackie, An American Life by Gip Hoppe (also in London's West End) and Jean Anouilh’s Ring Round the Moon with Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on Broadway, directed by Gerald Gutierrez.

Off-Broadway, Egolf has appeared in Davey Holmes’ More Lies About Jerzy at The Vineyard Theater and a number of new plays with Second Stage Theatre, The Flea Theater (in Polly Draper’s Getting Into Heaven), The Women's Project Theatre, and Dodger Stages (now New World Stages) (in Modern Orthodox, directed by James Lapine).

Egolf has also worked in many American regional theaters.

She received critical acclaim for her Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire at The Guthrie Theater (directed by John Miller-Stephany), Emma in Betrayal at the Huntington Theatre Company (directed by Maria Aitken), Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream at The Old Globe Theatre, Candida in Candida and Rosalind (As You Like It) at Pittsburgh Public Theater, Emily in Arthur Miller's Resurrection Blues at Wilma Theater (Philadelphia) and other plays with Berkshire Theater Festival (including Hay Fever with Joanne Woodward) and Barrington Stage Company, with whom she is an Artistic Associate

She married British artist Adam Chodzko in 2013 and now lives and works in both the US and UK.