Ellen McLaughlin's plays have received numerous national and international productions. They include Days and Nights Within, A Narrow Bed, Infinity's House, Iphigenia and Other Daughters, Tongue of a Bird, The Trojan Women, Helen, The Persians, Oedipus, Ajax in Iraq, Kissing the Floor, Septimus and Clarissa, and Penelope. Producers include: The Public Theater; The National Actors Theatre and New York Theatre Workshop in NYC; Actors Theatre of Louisville; The Actors' Gang L.A.; Classic Stage Company, NYC; The Intiman Theater, Seattle; Almeida Theater, London; The Mark Taper Forum, L.A.; The Oregon Shakespeare Festival; The Getty Villa, California; and The Guthrie Theater, Minnesota; among other venues.

Grants and awards include: Helen Merrill Award for Playwriting, Great American Play Contest, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the NEA, the Writer's Award from the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, and the Berilla Kerr Award for playwriting. She received a TCG/Fox Residency Grant for Ajax in Iraq, written for the A.R.T. Institute.

She has taught playwriting at Barnard College since 1995. Other teaching posts include Breadloaf School of English, Yale School of Drama, and Princeton University, among others.

Ms. McLaughlin is also an actor. She is most well-known for having originated the part of the Angel in Tony Kushner's Angels in America, appearing in every U.S. production from its earliest workshops through its original Broadway run.