"I made a commitment to myself; that I wanted to be an actress, and I wanted to do films that make a difference. It has to move people."
Laura Elizabeth Dern (born February 10, 1967 in Los Angeles, California) is an Oscar-winning American actress, director and producer.
She's best known for playing Ellie Sattler in Jurassic Park (1993) and for being something of a muse for David Lynch — she has appeared in Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Inland Empire, and Twin Peaks — and Alexander Payne (Citizen Ruth and Downsizing). She also helped produce the 2020 documentary film The Way I See It.
She is the daughter of actors Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd. (A 7-year-old Laura can be seen as an extra in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, which starred her mother.)
Film roles on this wiki:
- Teachers (1984) as Diane Warren
- Mask (1985) as Diana Adams
- Smooth Talk (1985) as Connie Wyatt
- Blue Velvet (1986) as Sandy Williams
- Fat Man and Little Boy (1989) as Kathleen Robinson
- Wild at Heart (1990) as Lisa Fortune
- Jurassic Park (1993) as Dr. Ellie Sattler
- A Perfect World (1993) as Sally Gerber
- Citizen Ruth (1996) as Ruth Proops
- Bastard out of Carolina (1996) as Narrator (voice)
- October Sky (1999) as Miss Riley
- Dr. T & the Women (2000) as Peggy
- Jurassic Park III (2001) as Dr. Ellie Sattler
- i am sam (2001) as Randy Carpenter
- Novocaine (2001) as Jean Noble
- Lonely Hearts (2006) as Rene Fodie
- Inland Empire (2006) as Nikki Grace / Susan Blue
- Everything Must Go (2010) as Delilah
- The Master (2012) as Helen Sullivan
- 99 Homes (2014) as Lynn Nash
- The Fault in Our Stars (2014) as Frannie Lancaster
- Wild (2014) as Bobbi Lambrecht
- The Founder (2016) as Ethel Kroc
- Wilson (2017) as Pippi
- Downsizing (2017) as Laura Lonowski
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) as Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo
- Cold Pursuit (2019) as Grace Coxman
- Marriage Story (2019) as Nora Franshaw note
- Little Women (2019) as Marmee March
- Jurassic World Dominion (2022) as Dr. Ellie Sattler
Television roles on this wiki:
- Ellen "The Puppy Episode" (1997) as Susan
- Enlightened (2011–13) as Amy Jellicoe
- F is for Family (2015–2021) as Sue Murphy (voice)
- Big Little Lies (2017–19) as Renata Klein
- Twin Peaks (2017) as Diane Evans
- The White Lotus (2022) as Abby (voice; uncredited)
Tropes related to her career:
- Creator Backlash: Her appearance in the low-budget horror film Grizzly II in the mid-1980s* because she was young and needed the money. Just saying the film's title is good enough to get a priceless reaction out of her.
- Production Posse: A frequent member of David Lynch's.
- Romance on the Set: Has dated a lot of her male co-stars. Has been in relationships with Nicolas Cage, Jeff Goldblum, Kyle Maclachlan and Billy Bob Thornton, among others.
- Statuesque Stunner: She may not look like it, being dwarfed by most of her male co-stars, on camera, but she's actually 5'10".
- Used to effect in The Last Jedi. She towers over the average-sized Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron), showing she's Large and in Charge.
