Laura San Giacomo

Fans and critics love Laura, she always gives a great performance. She went to Morris Knolls High School in Denville, where she got the acting bug, and had the lead in several school plays. Laura then got a Fine Arts degree, specializing in acting, at Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. This petite (5'2") brunette beauty was a natural for movies, and her breakout film was her first-- Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989) (1989), the movie won grand prize at the Cannes Film Festival; as for Laura, critics and fans alike loved her performance: she won the New Generation Award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and received a Golden Globe nomination. Next, she was the scene-stealing Kit De Luca in Pretty Woman (1990) (1990) opposite 'Julia Roberts;; the film won the People's Choice Awards for Best Comedy and Best Film. On stage, Laura was in the off-Broadway productions: "Three Sisters"; "Italian American Reconciliation" and "Wrong Turn at Lungfish" (to explain the title-- the plays says evolution started with fish, then lungfish, then animals, then people... did we take a Wrong Turn at Lungfish? If we hadn't, would we be Angels now?). In regional theater Laura was in: "Tempest"; "Romeo and Juliet" and "Crimes of the Heart." Onscreen, Laura got a starring role in Nina Takes a Lover (1994) (1994), she gave another magnificent performance. Offscreen, Laura got married to Cameron Dye in 1990; they had a son, Mason, in 1996. Unfortunately, the marriage didn't work, and they divorced. She has since remarried, to Matt Adler. Having a child influenced Laura to make the transition to TV, she started in "Just Shoot Me!" (1997), starring David Spade in 1997; television gave her a more regular work schedule, and no more traveling (as movies required). In the series she plays Maya Gallo, which is Italian for Mayan Rooster... and her wonderful career and her wonderful chest are things to crow about.

In September 2006, San Giacomo secured her first starring role on a television program since the cancellation of Just Shoot Me!. San Giacomo reunited with a former peer and co-stars opposite fellow Carnegie-Mellon alum Holly Hunter in TNT's drama series Saving Grace. San Giacomo plays the title character's best friend Rhetta Rodriguez, who's described in the casting notice as: "Early-mid 30s, Latin, sweet and smart, wearing a crucifix necklace. Rhetta is Grace's best friend in the Department, the woman in charge of Forensics. She and Grace have been buddies (and fellow troublemakers) ever since high school, only Rhetta has settled down and got herself a husband. A happily married woman who runs the Crime Lab, Rhetta is surprised when Grace brings her a bloodstained shirt, and later explains to a puzzled Grace that the bloodstains belong to a guy who's been on Death Row for years.