Laura San Giacomo

About Laura San Giacomo

Laura San Giacomo was born in West Orange, New Jersey, to parents MaryJo and John San Giacomo. She grew up in the nearby town of Denville, where she attended Morris Knolls High School. There, she discovered her passion for acting, taking leading roles in numerous school productions. Laura pursued her love for the craft at Carnegie Mellon School of Drama in Pittsburgh, earning a Fine Arts degree with a focus on acting. Following her graduation, she relocated to New York City.

In the late 1980s, prior to embarking on her film career, Laura made appearances on television shows such as Spenser: For Hire (1985), Crime Story (1986), The Equalizer (1985), All My Children (1970), and Miami Vice (1984). Her first credited role in Steven Soderbergh's film Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989) marked her breakout moment, earning the film the prestigious Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. For her performance, Laura was honored with a New Generation Award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and received a Golden Globe nomination. Shortly after, she portrayed Kit De Luca in the beloved film Pretty Woman (1990), starring alongside Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. The film went on to win the People's Choice Awards for Best Comedy and Best Film.

On stage, Laura has participated in an array of theatrical productions. She has performed in the Garry Marshall-Lowell Ganz play "Wrong Turn at Lungfish" in Los Angeles, as well as in "North Shore Fish" at WPA Theatre. Other notable theater credits include "Three Sisters" at Princeton/McCarter Theatre in New Jersey (1992), "Beirut" at the Off-Broadway Westside Arts Theatre in New York City (1987), "Italian American Reconciliation" at the Manhattan Theatre Club (1988), and "The Love Talker" Off-Broadway (1988). In regional theater, she has acted in Shakespeare's "The Tempest," "As You Like It," and "Romeo and Juliet," along with starring in "Crimes of the Heart."

Throughout the early 1990s, Laura was busy appearing in films like Vital Signs (1990), Quigley Down Under (1990), Once Around (1991), where she played Holly Hunter's character's sister, Under Suspicion (1991), Where the Day Takes You (1992), and Nina Takes a Lover (1994). In 1994, she featured in Stephen King's miniseries, The Stand. During the mid-1990s, Laura lent her voice to the animated series Gargoyles (1994).

In her personal life, Laura married Cameron Dye in 1990, but the couple divorced in 1998. They welcomed a son, Mason, in 1996, and parenting prompted her shift toward television work. She began starring in the sitcom Just Shoot Me