Elsa is a deaf actor, director and poet with a long and diverse career. With an education spanning Sign-Language studies and theater and film-making, she has worked as a translator from Icelandic to Icelandic Sign-Language (ÍTM) and an ÍTM teacher since 1990. She starred in a variety of movies since 1983 and started directing in 2015 with two award-winning short films.

She now teaches Sign-Language linguistics at the University of Iceland, and hosted a workshop to teach Visual Vernacular in the summer. She is currently extending her education as a masters student in linguistics.