Ela Jo Erwin

Ela Jo Erwin has not been able to keep herself away from clothing and the stories it can tell since she was a wee girl dressing up in the patent leather boots, suede heels and wildly patterned dresses and hats she found tucked away in her mothers and grandmothers closet. She had never heard of such a profession as Costume Design during her upbringing bouncing from the Southwestern US to Southeast Asia and then to the Middle East where she graduated from High school in Yemen. However, after entering college to study Theatre and Anthropology, she realized that she had been an accidental student of costume design her entire life, always drawn to the gorgeously created textiles of the places she traveled and the way that all people use clothing to tell the story of who and how they are. It was a revelation.

She completed her bachelor's degree at Arizona State University, and after traveling in Asia and Central America for a couple of years, she made it to Los Angeles where she achieved her MFA in Costume Design at UCLA's School of Theatre Film and Television. Since then, she continues to design for independent films, commercials, television and web series, as well as always keeping her hand in an array of theatrical projects; her stage work has appeared at such venues as the Disney Hall, the Pasadena Playhouse, and the Geffen Playhouse to name a few. When she is not designing, she is probably traveling or simply marveling at something beautiful.