Erika Amato

Erika Amato, born December 7, 1969, in Plainfield, New Jersey, is an American singer, actress, and founding member of the rock band Velvet Chain. She grew up in nearby Mountainside and began performing music at the age of three. Amato attended the all-girls Kent Place School, where she received the Drama Award upon graduation, before going on to earn a Bachelor of Arts in drama from Vassar College. During her time at Vassar, she sang with the Music Department's a cappella ensemble the Madrigals as well as the student-managed coeducational group Matthew's Minstrels.

Following her graduation, Amato relocated to Los Angeles to pursue acting and earned her SAG card through a guest-starring role on the television series Quantum Leap. In the mid-1990s, she co-founded Velvet Chain alongside her late husband, Jeff Stacy. The indie band gained widespread recognition through appearances on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and a subsequent soundtrack album released on TVT Records. The band also self-released multiple albums through its own imprint, Freak Productions, and its members have continued to write and record material. Amato has additionally provided voice work for the PBS animated series Danger Rangers and the Disney feature film Enchanted, and she appeared on the television competition Win Ben Stein's Money, which she won, as well as on Jeopardy!, where she did not win.

Amato has appeared in several films, including a lead role in the independent production A Couple of Days and Nights. After moving to New York City, she performed in the Off-Broadway musicals The Sphinx Winx and Signs of Life. Her stage work across North America spans a wide range of productions, including Paint Your Wagon at the Geffen Playhouse, Sleeping Beauty Wakes with Center Theatre Group — which earned her an Ovation Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical — Nine at the Chance Theater, for which she received an OC Weekly Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical, 42nd Street at the Welk Resort Theatre, and Anything Goes at the Candlelight Pavilion, earning an Inland Theatre League Awards nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. Her production of Into the Woods with the Ocean State Theatre Company brought her a Broadway World Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. Among her Broadway credits is the First National Tour of Flashdance the Musical.