Laura Dern Biography

Laura Dern is a lanky blonde leading lady of the big screen, best known for her roles in David Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986) and Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park (1993). Her parents are actors Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd, and she grew up in Los Angeles and New York surrounded by bohemian actors and filmmakers. As a child she made a few brief appearances in her mom's movies, including Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974, starring Ellen Burstyn), then studied acting into her teens. She played earnest and innocent in her early roles, including Smooth Talk (1985) and Blue Velvet, and then proved she could play nutty and reckless in Lynch's Wild At Heart (1990, with Nicolas Cage) and the sort-of comedy Citizen Ruth (1996, with Tippi Hedren). An Oscar nominee for Rambling Rose (1991), Dern has also had supporting roles in films like October Sky (1999, with Jake Gyllenhaal) and I Am Sam (2001, starring Sean Penn). Despite her big-budget Jurassic Park roles (she was also in Jurassic Park III), Dern has a reputation as a risk-taker, thanks in no small part to her collaborations with Lynch in films like the 2006 feature Inland Empire.