From Birth To Stardom

Laura San Giacomo stars as Maya Gallo, an intelligent, feminist-minded journalist who is determined to add a more serious tone to the “Cosmo”-esque Blush magazine, despite the efforts of her father, Blush publisher Jack Gallo (George Segal).

A Golden Globe nominee for her role in “Just Shoot Me,” San Giacomo also garnered a Golden Globe nomination for her 1989 film debut, playing a barmaid who has an affair with her sister’s husband in the breakthrough independent film “sex, lies and videotape.” The feature won the Palme D’Or grand prize at the Cannes Film Festival and earned the actress the prestigious New Generation Award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. She is also well-known to audiences for her portrayal of Julia Roberts’ wisecracking best friend in the 1990 hit film “Pretty Woman.”

Her numerous film credits also include “Quigley Down Under” opposite Tom Selleck, Harold Ramis’ “Stuart Saves His Family,” “Under Suspicion” opposite Liam Neeson, “Once Around” with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfuss, “Nina Takes a Lover” (in the title role) and “Suicide Kings.”

On stage, San Giacomo has appeared in Garry Marshall and Lowell Ganz’ “Wrong Turn at Lungfish,” “Three Sisters” at the McCarter Theatre and the off-Broadway productions of “Italian-American Reconciliation” and “Beirut.” Her regional theater credits include “The Tempest,” “As You Like It,” “Romeo and Juliet” and “Crimes of the Heart.”

On the small screen, she recently completed the TV movie “The Jenifer Estess Story,” with Jane Kaczmarek and Annabella Sciorra. She also starred in the highly rated Stephen King miniseries “The Stand,” and the television movies “Sister Mary Explains It All,” “For Their Own Good” and “The Right to Remain Silent,” for which she earned a CableACE Award nomination.

Born in West Orange, New Jersey, and raised in the neighboring town of Denville, San Giacomo caught the acting bug in high school and went on to earn a bachelor of fine arts degree at Carnegie-Mellon University. She now lives in Los Angeles with her son. Her birthday is November 14.