​Laura LaPlaca, PhD 

Laura is a pop culture historian, archivist, curator, and author with over ten years of experience leading cultural heritage projects with museums, libraries, private clients, and universities.
 
She holds a PhD and MA from Northwestern University’s Department of Radio/TV/Film and BAs in Art History and English Literature from Pepperdine University. She is certified by the Academy of Certified Archivists and part of the Society of American Archivists’ Performing Arts steering committee.
 
Laura currently serves as Director of Archives & Research for the National Comedy Center, the nation’s congressionally-designated repository for comedy history and the first cultural institution dedicated to presenting and preserving the vital story of comedy.
 
At the Comedy Center, she oversees acquisitions, preservation, research, and exhibition of artifacts from the careers of artists including Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, George Carlin, Lenny Bruce, The Smothers Brothers, Carol Burnett, The Marx Brothers, Carl Reiner, Joan Rivers, Garry Shandling, Jonathan Winters, Harold Ramis, Rodney Dangerfield, and dozens of others.
 
The National Comedy Center was recently named the Best New Museum in the country by USA Today, one of Time magazine’s World’s Greatest Places, and one of People magazine’s Reasons to Love America. Since opening in August 2018, the Comedy Center has welcomed over 100,000 visitors from all 50 states to experience its 37,000-square-feet of gallery space and cutting-edge interactive exhibits. www.ComedyCenter.org