Erika Amato


Erika Amato is an American singer and actress and a founding member of the band Velvet Chain.

Biography

Amato was born in the city of Plainfield, New Jersey and grew up in nearby Mountainside. She started playing and performing music at the age of three. Amato attended the all-girls Kent Place School and then Vassar College, earning a BA with both General Honors and Honors in Drama. While at Vassar, she performed in the Music Department's elite a cappella group, the Madrigals, and in the student-managed coeducational a cappella group, Matthew's Minstrels.
After Vassar, Amato moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career and quickly was cast as a guest star on popular TV series Quantum Leap, garnering her a SAG card. In the mid-1990s, she and Jeff Stacy founded Velvet Chain, an indie band with a large cult following, most famous for appearances on TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the subsequent soundtrack album on TVT Records. The band has also self-released several albums on its own label, Freak Productions, and members continue to write and record material.
Amato is still acting and has relocated to New York City, where she has been in numerous productions, including the Off-Broadway musicals The Sphinx Winx and Signs of Life. She has also appeared in several films over the years, including the lead in indie film A Couple of Days and Nights and in musicals throughout North America, including the First National Tour of Flashdance the Musical, Into the Woods, Sleeping Beauty Wakes, Paint Your Wagon, Nine, 42nd Street, and Anything Goes.
She also does voice work for TV shows and films, most recently for the PBS-TV animated series Danger Rangers and Disney feature film Enchanted.
Amato appeared on the TV competition Win Ben Stein's Money, and won.