Laura Dern Biography And Filmography:

Laura Dern was born on February 10, 1967 into a show business family - her father is Bruce Dern and her mother is Diane Ladd. Dern was exposed to movie sets and the movie industry from an early age, and won several small parts as a child. Her parents divorced when Dern was two and Dern lost contact with her father for several years as a result.

The history of Laura's parents, and her own early taste of the moviemaking world soon won over the young Dern to chase acting herself. Like so many young actors, her decision may have been influenced by social unease -- the child of 1960s counterculture parents, Laura was immersed in Eastern mysticism and political radicalism, and was seen as an oddity by her more conformist friends. Her gangly physical appearance didn't help - even before her teens, Dern had grown most of her impressive 5' 10" height, was skinny, had big feet and a droopy posture, and for all this was often laughed at by classmates. Maybe the ten-year-old Laura Dern found comfort by studying acting at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute.

The first success for the young Dern came in 1980, with a role in "Foxes" (1980), a young teen movie starring Jodie Foster about a group of friends who come of age in the asphalt desert of the San Fernando Valley set to a blazing soundtrack and endless drinking, drugs and sex. Dern followed this role with several small parts, or parts in small movies, such as "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains" (1981) and "Teachers" (1984) with Morgan Freeman, as a student who has an affair with a teacher. Dern's  mother opposed her presence on the movie sets at age thirteen, which required Dern to sue for emancipation so she could play her role in "The Fabulous Stains". 

Dern's next roles, as the blind girl who makes friends with the deformed boy in "Mask" (1985) starring Cher and Eric Stoltz, and as a teen age girl whose sexual awakening meets a mysterious older man in "Smooth Talk" (1985), gave her career a vital boost. Dern appeared to have made it with a leading role in David Lynch's much-admired "Blue Velvet" (1986), where after finding a severed human ear in a field, a young man soon discovers a sinister underworld lying just beneath his idyllic suburban home town. But it was four years before Dern's next prominent movie in "Wild at Heart" (1990) starring Nicolas Cage and directed by Lynch.

The following year, Dern starred in "Rambling Rose" (1991), which would become her famous performance, as a sexually talented, free spirited young maid in the South in the 1930s. Dern won an Oscar nomination for her work, and so did her mother and co-star, Diane Ladd. Dern continued to accept high profile roles on the movie screen, often in smaller, human dramas such as "October Sky" (1999) starring Jake Gyllenhaal, about the true story of Homer Hickam, a coal miner's son who was inspired by the first Sputnik launch to take up rocketry against his father's wishes. Next was "I Am Sam" (2001) with Sean Penn and Michelle Pfieffer, about a mentally retarded man who fights for custody of his 7-year-old daughter, and in the process teaches his cold-hearted lawyer the value of love and family. Laura was then cast in the romantic drama "We Don't Live Here Anymore" (2004).

Laura Dern is most widely known for her repeat role as Ellie Sattler in the summer adventure movies "Jurassic Park" (1993) and "Jurassic Park III" (2001), or for her guest performance on "Ellen" (1994), as the woman to whom Ellen finally comes out as a lesbian. She has also starred in the action thriller "A Perfect World" (1993) starring Kevin Costner, and the the starring role in "Citizen Ruth" (1996), about a poor indigent drug-user (a huffer - inhaling glue and paint for a high) whose down and out existence is complicated once more by becoming pregnant (she has had and lost four children already). Dern then had a supporting role in the romantic comedy "Dr T and the Women" (2000) working along an all-star cast that included Richard Gere, Helen Hunt, Kate Hudson and Liv Tyler, about a wealthy Dallas gynecologist to some of the wealthiest women in Texas who finds his idealist life beginning to fall apart starting when his wife, Kate, suffers a nervous breakdown and is committed to the state mental hospital. 

Dern then worked opposite Billy Bob Thornton in the comedy "Daddy And Them" (2004), written by Thornton with a star studded cast including Jamie Lee Curtis, Ben Affleck, a dark comedy where a married couple (Billy Bob Thornton and Laura Dern) come to the aid of a jailed uncle (Jim Varney). More comedy followed with a role next to Steve Martin in the comedy "Novocaine", where a dentist finds himself a murder suspect after a sexy patient seduces him into prescribing her drugs. Dern then appeared in a story that weaved multiple stories to create a witty look at love, family and the sheer unpredictability of life itself in "Happy Endings" (2005).

The following year, Laura Dern had a supporting role in the Todd Robinson blockbuster romantic crime thriller "Lonely Hearts" (2005) starring John Travolta, Jared Leto and Salma Hayek, based on the true story, where two homicide detectives track Martha Beck and Raymond Martinez Fernandez, a murderous pair known as the "Lonely Hearts Killers" who lured their victims through the personals. Dern then switched gears and appeared in an independent comedy "Year Of The Dog" (2007) starring Molly Shannon, where a secretary's life changes in unexpected ways after her dog dies. Dern wrapped her year next to Russell Crowe in the dramatic "Tenderness" (2008), about a policeman (Russell Crowe) who works to figure out whether a violent teen murdered his family.

Next was a role as Katherine Harris, in a chronicle of the weeks after the 2000 U.S. presidential election and the subsequent recounts in Florida in "Recount" (2008) starring Kevin Spacey. Laura Dern the appeared in another sequel to the smash hit "Jurassic Park" franchise in "Jurassic Park IV" (2009).

Laura has made numerous special guest appearances on familiar television sitcoms and shows including "Fallen Angels", "Frasier", "Ellen", "The West Wing" and "King of the Hill".

Having previously dated such Hollywood talent as Treat Williams, Renny Harlin, Kyle MacLachlan, Jeff Goldblum and Billy Bob Thornton, Dern eventually married musician Ben Harper in 2005. Early in her career, Dern was roommate to Marianne Williamson, the spirituality guru.