Erik Orton, was raised primarily in Germany and the suburbs of Washington D.C.  He graduated from Brigham Young University in 1998 with a Bachelor of Arts in Media Music and a minor in Playwrighting.  He began writing and producing theatre while a student.

After a short stint as the company manager of Washington D.C.’s Shakespeare Theatre, Orton moved to New York City and began working in company and general management for Broadway productions.  His original musical Berlin was performed Off-Off-Broadway. In 2005, he produced the Off-Broadway musical The Ark and produced the cast album which is now available on iTunes.  Orton also penned The Drummings (in collaboration with Joshua Williams) based on the life and times of Irish statesman Daniel O'Connell.  In 2009, BYU’s production of Orton’s Berlin won the Cine Golden Eagle Award and an Emmy Award.  In 2010 it went on to win the Bronze Telly Award. 

Orton recently completed a script entitled The Bottom of the Barents Sea, about the international rescue effort to save the crew of a downed Russian nuclear submarine.  It received its premiere public reading at NYC’s 2011 Uptown Arts Stroll.  State of the Union, a script recently commissioned of Orton by the Don & Shirley Oscarson Discovery Grant, will be developed at BYU’s Writer/Director/Actor Workshop Oct-Dec 2011. 

In winter 2010, Orton directed and produced the world premiere of I Will Be Good, a solo show by Tricia Rose Burt, at the Tampa Bay Straz Center for the Performing Arts after developmental engagements at the Nantucket Theatre Workshop.

Orton has worked for a variety of Broadway general management offices including Alan Wasser Associates, Richards/Climan Inc. and 321 Theatrical Management.  Broadway shows and tours he has managed include Wicked, The Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Miss Saigon, Jane Eyre and Fosse among others. Regionally he functioned as the Production Coordinator at The Wolf Trap Center for the Performing Arts, the Production Supervisor at the Signature Theatre and Company Manager at Washington D.C.’s Shakespeare Theatre. 

Orton has been featured on the cover of Crain's Business New York as well as the The New York Times and theatre industry news hub Playbill.com.  He was published in London’s 2011 spring edition of Theatre & Performance.

He has lived in Germany, Chile, the U.S. and holds dual citizenship in Finland.