Ed the Artist has become sketcher of the stars on Broadway, drawing portraits of celebrities like George Clooney, Cynthia Erivo, Jimmy Fallon and many others. She then shows them their sketches and posts their reactions on social media.
George Clooney smiled.
A crowd of people lined the sidewalk as the actor exited the Broadway theater where he had just performed in “Good Night, and Good Luck.” Fans shouted his name, hoping to get an autograph or selfie. In a sea of Playbills and cell-phone cameras, Clooney’s attention was drawn to a familiar face.
His own.
Standing just outside the stage door, Erica Keselman held out a pencil-sketched portrait of Clooney that was so lifelike it was as if he walked off the stage and onto the page.
A sketch of actor George Clooney by Ed the Artist. (Photo courtesy of Ed the Artist)
Before walking over to autograph the sketch, Clooney raised his eyebrows in appreciation and smiled.
“To me, that was a fantastic reaction,” Keselman said. “Some people might say, ‘Oh, he didn’t say anything!’ or whatever, but that was a genuine immediate response.”
Keselman recorded Clooney’s reaction, as she does with all celebrities she sketches, and posted the video on her Instagram page for her nearly 200,000 followers, who know her as “Ed the Artist.”
She has become Broadway’s sketcher of the stars — with hundreds of autographed portraits and many viral videos of her celebrity interactions.
Some of the stars show their sketch to the crowd. Some ask to take a picture of it. Some even keep it, ripping the page out of Keselman’s trademark spiral notebook in what has become something of a ceremonial Broadway tradition.
“I really don’t go in expecting anything,” she said, “but it’s always wonderful to be uplifted by them.”
That’s why the smile from Clooney after his performance was all she needed to know her artwork was appreciated.
“He had some emotional response to it, and that was really cool,” she said. “I mean, this is a huge star. I’m sure he’s seen some very impressive stuff in his career … So, to catch his eye, and he gave me that little smile, it really meant a lot.”
Lights, curtains, sketch
Erica Keselman, also known on social media as “Ed the Artist,” sketches outside a Broadway theater. (Photo by Mike Gavin)
Cynthia Erivo said she was going to frame it. John Krasinski wrote, “I love this!” Richard Kind was very touched.
When Richard Kind emerged from the stage door at the Hudson Theater in December 2024 after his appearance in “All Out,” Keselman was in position along the barricade. She held out the sketch she drew of him, her camera positioned just behind the notebook to capture Kind’s reaction.
The video would soon go viral, launching Ed the Artist’s social media following.
Kind looked down, saw the drawing of his smiling face with his hands placed on his cheeks, and his mouth dropped.
“Wow,” he said softly. “That’s really great.”
A sketch of actor Richard Kind by Ed the Artist. (Photo courtesy of Ed the Artist)
He questioned why she’d want him to autograph the sketch, saying, “Why would you ruin it?”
“I’m so taken by this,” he said while nervously signing it. “Really beautiful. Really.”
He reached into his pocket for his phone, asking, “May I?” before taking a photo of his picture.
“I’m very touched,” he said. “Very, very touched.”
The video of his heartfelt reaction had over four million views on Instagram — collecting nearly 400,000 likes and earning Ed the Artist thousands of new followers.
“It reached far beyond what I expected,” Keselman said. “It really showed me how much people connect with genuine personal interactions like that.”
Many more interactions followed. She went to 127 Broadway shows in 2025, a total she’s on pace to surpass this year, and now has roughly 300 signed sketches (and counting) that she says she’ll never sell.
“I’m not gonna stop going to the theater, so it’s just continuous,” she said with a laugh, adding that she dreams of one day sketching and meeting Paul McCartney, Harrison Ford, Lewis Hamilton and Jerry Seinfeld.
“I’m inspired by all art forms, and sketching celebrities allows me to translate inspiration into something more tangible,” she said. “It’s a personal expression of admiration and a way of honoring their artistry through my own art.”
‘Born with a pencil in one hand’
Erica Keselman at one of her early art exhibits. (Photo courtesy of Ed the Artist)
Jimmy Fallon came to a stop. Alicia Keys told her she killed it. Michael C. Hall reached over the crowd.
Rows of fans separated “Dexter” star Michael C. Hall and Keselman during her very first stage door experience in 2015.
Keselman had sketched a photo of Hall as the title character in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.” She brought the sketch to the theater, not to show Hall or get signed, but to simply take a photo of it in front of the marquee. When she exited the theater, she saw a crowd gathering and joined in.
At the time, she was unaware of the Broadway tradition that is the stage door, where cast members sign Playbills and take pictures with fans while exiting the theater after their performance.
The face drawn in her sketch book then appeared in front of her.
“I was way in the back, but I held up my drawing,” she said. “He looked up and reached way over the crowd and took it and signed it and passed it back to me. I was so ecstatic that it definitely changed everything about my theatergoing process.”
Michael C. Hall signs a sketch of his character in the Broadway show “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” in 2015. (Courtesy of Ed the Artist)
Growing up in Staten Island — where she was nicknamed Ed, a combination of her first and last initials at the time — Keselman was consumed by the artistic and cultural offerings of New York City. Her artistry was self-taught, with her only lessons coming from her surroundings.
“I had a lot of access to museums and that really shaped how I saw art,” she said. “We can walk down the street and see where Andy Warhol did his paintings and things like that. But beyond that, I’ve never had any kind of formal training. It’s always been me obsessing with art.”
In elementary school, she filled a folder with drawings of her first celebrity sketches: Sonic the Hedgehog, Pokémon and other cartoon characters.
“I would give them out to other kids, and that’s the earliest I can remember sharing my art,” she said. “I’ve just always drawn. I feel like I was born with a pencil in one hand.”
There’s no business like sketch business
Erica Keselman, also known on social media as “Ed the Artist,” sketches a portrait of actor Don Cheadle. (Photo by Mike Gavin)
Daniel Radcliffe joked that he doesn’t look like that in real life. Rachel Zegler told her it was so beautiful and she’s “not saying that because it’s my face.” Ayo Edebiri wrote “I like it!”
It was a few hours before the curtain went up for the Broadway debuts of Ayo Edebiri, the Emmy-winning star of “The Bear,” and actor Don Cheadle in “Proof.” Keselman, while en route to the show, began sketching the cast.
As a mother of three — with each of her children named after renowned artists — part of Keselman’s life-art balance means sketching while in a car, bus or train. She draws portraits, not in the silence of an art studio, but in the chaos of a New York City commute.
“The roads aren’t too smooth,” she said, “so it’s a challenge in itself.”
Supplies for her art-on-wheels sessions include a graphite pencil for shading, a white pencil for the highlights, a sharpener and a Strathmore spiral sketch book.
“I’m weirdly particular about my paper,” she said, noting that she uses the same as Warhol, one of her idols.
The page fills quickly. Her sketches, to the surprise of those whose face has been drawn, are completed in only 30 to 40 minutes.
She begins each with the eyes, making them lifelike on the page. Look at her portraits, and they will stare back.
“I always try to put a lot of life in the eyes, that’s a big focus for me,” she said. “If they don’t seem like they’re going the right way, then I’ll start another drawing.”
A sketch of actor Ayo Edebiri by Ed the Artist. (Photo courtesy of Ed the Artist)
She continued drawing Edebiri and Cheadle while seated on the steps outside the Booth Theatre as showtime approached. When the doors opened, she took her seat in the mezzanine and kept adding details until the lights dimmed and curtains went up, and again during intermission.
When the curtains came down after the show, Keselman and her sketches exited stage left. She secured a prime position along the barricade by the stage door: front and center, holding her sketch book and Playbill over the rail.
The crowd filled in around her. Cast members later emerged to cheers. They made their way down the line until they saw the sketch and looked into their own eyes.
“You drew this? Great job,” Cheadle said.
“Did you do this? Wow! Thank you. That’s incredible,” Jin Ha said.
“I’m so in awe of you. You’re amazing,” Kara Young said.
“Whoaaaa. Oh my God. Did you draw this?” Edebiri said before autographing the sketch and writing, “I like it!”
Like looking in a mirror
Erica Keselman, also known on social media as “Ed the Artist,” returned to the theater to give actor Donald Webber Jr. a portrait to keep. (Photo by Mike Gavin)
Jesse Eisenberg wrote, “This is a vast improvement.” Jasmine Amy Rogers felt bad signing it. Donald Webber Jr. showed the sketch to the crowd.
Look at where you are, look at where you started.
It’s a line that Donald Webber Jr. and the cast of “Hamilton” repeat daily on stage. And it came to Webber’s mind when he first encountered Ed the Artist and saw his portrait.
“I remember wanting someone to think I was important enough to draw a picture of,” Webber Jr. recently told NBC, “and here we are.”
Webber was signing Playbills and making conversation with the crowd after his performance in “Glengarry Glen Ross” when he first noticed his sketch.
“I thought, ‘Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen myself — other than a mirror — like this,’” he said.
The reflection of the portrait was so detailed, he said, that it even featured the moles above his cheek that he and his family members all have.
“You just got finished doing this show, you put your all out there, you’re playing his character, and when you come out of the stage door, there’s someone who’s giving you, not a picture of you in costume, but a picture of yourself,” Webber said. “That just meant the world to me, honestly.”
So much so that he held the notebook up for the audience at the stage door to see — and the sketch wowed the crowd.
“That really took me by surprise,” Keselman said, “because he not only wanted to enjoy the art himself but share it with everyone else.”
Webber — who also stars in “Severance” and the upcoming Katie Holmes trilogy “Happy Hours” — was so appreciative of the sketch that, months later, Keselman returned to his theater to give him another to keep.
“It makes me feel really cool to be at a point in my life where someone would want to take their time and their artistry and their talent and make a picture of me,” he said. “I just think that’s so beautiful.”
The sketch now hangs in a frame at his home — serving as a daily reminding for Webber to look at where he is and look at where he started.
“She made that a life moment for me by doing that,” Webber said. “And I’ll always remember that.”
When one stage door closes, another opens
Erica Keselman, also known on social media as “Ed the Artist,” sketches in Times Square. (Photo by Mike Gavin)
Adrien Brody held up the sketch and said, ”Look at that.” Bobby Cannavale added a drawing of his own. Jon Stewart told her, “I should be standing outside of your theater!”
Outside the theater, Keselman occasionally gets recognized.
In October, she was waiting for Tom Hanks following his performance in “This World of Tomorrow” when she was approached by one of her followers.
“Are you Ed the Artist from Instagram?” asked Isabel Yin of New Jersey.
Yin, a Broadway enthusiast, began following Ed the Artist after seeing Richard Kind’s reaction to the sketch.
“I like how they love her work,” Yin said of the celebrity reactions to Keselman’s drawings. “She’s really talented, and I like how she makes the person really vivid.”
Isabel Yin recognized Ed the Artist from social media and was given a sketch of actor Tom Hanks. (Photo by Mike Gavin)
Yin left the theater that night with one of those vivid drawings. Hanks never showed at the stage door, so Keselman gave her the sketch of Hanks.
“To be recognized for my art that I’ve been doing for so long now is just amazing,” said Keselman, adding that she was once approached by a follower while outside a theater in France. “It’s so difficult nowadays to be famous for art in any kind of way.”
She’s a familiar face around Broadway and beyond, and she’s known by some theater security guards near and far. While in London, she drew Danny, security guard to the stars, and showed him his sketch at the stage door as he was escorting “Evita” star Rachel Zegler.
“He has a very tough exterior and I feel like I was able to break through,” Keselman said.
“You even got his frown,” Zegler joked.
Other times, she’s recognized by the Broadway actors she sketches.
Gracie Lawrence — the Tony-nominated star of “Just in Time” — marveled over her portrait before realizing she was familiar with the artist’s work.
“Wait, do you have a TikTok and you show people this?” she asked. “I follow you.”
Keselman said she doesn’t sketch for recognition, or for social media likes, or even for the drawings.
She does it for that brief moment that unites the artist, the subject and the audience.
“For me, it’s about the connection through art,” she said. “I’m inspired by all of these performers. I can’t do what they can do. I do what I can do, and that’s the way that I’m able to connect with them.”
Even if only through a smile.
