Laura San Giacomo Biography

Laura San Giacomo (born November 14, 1962) is an American actress known for playing the role of Maya Gallo on the NBC sitcom Just Shoot Me!, Kit De Luca in the film Pretty Woman, and Cynthia in Sex, Lies, and Videotape as well as other work on television and in films. She most recently played the role of Holly Hunter's childhood best friend on the TNT crime drama series Saving Grace.

Early life

San Giacomo, an Italian American, was born in West Orange, New Jersey, the daughter of MaryJo and John San Giacomo, a paper mill owner. She grew up in Denville, New Jersey. San Giacomo discovered acting while attending Morris Knolls High School. In 1984, she received a Fine Arts degree, specializing in acting, from Carnegie Mellon School of Drama in Pittsburgh. After graduating, she moved to New York. San Giacomo then went on to appear in several theater productions, including the Garry Marshall-Lowell Ganz production of Wrong Turn at Lungfish in Los Angeles, the Princeton/McCarter Theatre production of Three Sisters and off-Broadway in Beirut. She also starred in Italian American Reconciliation, regional productions of Shakespeare's The Tempest, As You Like It and Romeo and Juliet, as well as Crimes of the Heart.

Career

Early career

San Giacomo's first television appearances were four episodes on three television series during 1987. Two notable appearances were in Crime Story in 1988 for the episode "Protected Witness" (Season 2 / Episode 13) as Theresa Farantino, and in Miami Vice in 1989 for the episode, "Leap Of Faith" (Season 5 / Episode 19) as Tania Lewis. The Miami Vice episode also featured a guest appearance by her future husband, actor Cameron Dye, one year before their marriage. Prior to that, she was featured on the daytime soap opera All My Children as Louisa Sanchez, the Latina common-law wife of Mitch Beck (Brian Fitzpatrick) whose presence threatened to thwart his relationship with Hillary Martin (Carmen Thomas).

However, San Giacomo first drew international attention in Steven Soderbergh's Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989), which also marked her film debut as a credited actor (in the 1988 movie Miles from Home her role as "Sandy" was not credited). Her work in the film was nominated for a Golden Globe, and she received a Los Angeles Film Critics Association New Generation Award. The film was honored with the Cannes Film Festival's prestigious Grand Prize, the Palme d'Or.

In 1990, San Giacomo played a supporting role as Julia Roberts' character's wisecracking friend Kit De Luca in Pretty Woman. The blockbuster film ended up generating $178 million at the box office.

San Giacomo has appeared in such films as Miles from Home (1988), Quigley Down Under (1990), Vital Signs (1990), Under Suspicion (1991), Once Around (1991), Where the Day Takes You (1992), Nina Takes a Lover (1994), and Suicide Kings (1997). She also appeared as Nadine Cross in the Stephen King TV miniseries The Stand opposite Rob Lowe, which landed them on the cover of the May 7 " 13 1994 issue of TV Guide. She continued doing films, and as 1999 ended, she did the film Eat Your Heart Out. In 2001, San Giacomo landed the starring role in the Jenifer Estess bio-pic Jenifer, which aired on CBS in October of that year.

San Giacomo did voice work for the animated series Gargoyles (as the character of Fox).

Just Shoot Me!

Needing to work, but not wanting to be away from her newborn son for months at a time, San Giacomo shifted to television in the role of hot-tempered, sassy journalist Maya Gallo in the situation comedy Just Shoot Me! (1997"2003). Her character was partially based on an unproduced idea that executive producer Steven Levitan once had in mind for actress Janeane Garofalo when he was a writer for The Larry Sanders Show. San Giacomo was originally cast in the starring role, since the series was meant to be centered around her character, but soon became an ensemble format. Despite the shift in focus, San Giacomo remained as an integral part of the show and with top billing. She and the four other main cast members appeared in all 148 episodes of the series, which lasted until 2003.

San Giacomo's work during Season 2 (1997"1998) earned her a Golden Globe nomination in 1998 for Best Actress in a Television Comedy or Musical; the award went to Ally McBeal's Calista Flockhart.

Post-Just Shoot Me! and appearances

After NBC cancelled Just Shoot Me! in 2003, San Giacomo appeared sporadically on television and in films. She made guest appearances on several television series, including the short-lived CBS crime drama The Handler in 2003 and HBO's Unscripted in 2005. She was the narrator for the true crime series Snapped on Oxygen. San Giacomo also appeared in the 2005 films Checking Out and Havoc, as well as the 2006 film Conquistadora. San Giacomo was to have made her return to television on The WB's new drama Related in 2005, but the character was recast due to creative differences. Kiele Sanchez took her place as "Anne Sorelli" on the show. San Giacomo also made few public appearances; she made her first public appearance in nearly a year on 19 October 2005 at the 15th Annual Environmental Media Awards. She made two more public appearances at the Crystal and Lucy Awards on 6 June 2006 and at the 3rd Annual Alfred Mann Foundation Innovation and Inspiration Gala on 9 September 2006.

In 2006, San Giacomo returned to network television with three guest appearances on the third season of Veronica Mars. She reunited with her former love interest from Just Shoot Me!, Enrico Colantoni, playing Harmony Chase. Both Colantoni and San Giacomo enjoyed their reunion so much that they lobbied for their characters to appear together in further episodes.

In September 2006, San Giacomo secured her first starring role on a television program after Just Shoot Me!, when she reunited with a former peer and co-starred opposite fellow Carnegie-Mellon alum Holly Hunter in TNT's drama series Saving Grace. San Giacomo played Grace's best friend Rhetta Rodriguez.

In June 2010, San Giacomo guest starred in the episode titled "Death Becomes Her" on the USA network's In Plain Sight. She played a woman from an organized crime family with a terminal illness. In December 2011, San Giacomo appeared on the episode entitled "Beards" on Hot in Cleveland, as Caroline, Melanie's estranged sister.

Personal life

San Giacomo has been married twice, first to actor Cameron Dye from 1990 to 1998, with whom she had a son, Mason, born in 1996. Her son has cerebral palsy. In 2000, she married actor Matt Adler.

San Giacomo is a cousin of Torry Castellano, former drummer of the rock group The Donnas.

She lives in the San Fernando Valley in California. Her hobbies include horseback riding, gymnastics, ice skating, ballet, tennis, golf and playing piano.

San Giacomo is a strong supporter of charitable causes, mostly disability-related ones. She has appeared at the Environmental Media Awards, the "Voices For Change" gala benefit and concert which benefits Children with Disabilities, and the "Friends Finding a Cure" gala benefiting Project ALS. She is also a founder of the CHIME Charter Elementary School, an elementary school in Woodland Hills, California. Chime is an inclusion school for all children of all abilities. The school opened its doors in 2001. As a charter school, CHIME provides free public education to students and admits them through a lottery system. The school serves approximately 200 children in kindergarten through fifth grade who live in communities around California's San Fernando Valley. Today Chime services grade kindergarten through eighth grade and has almost 700 students.

Filmography

Film
Year	Title	Role	Notes|-
1988	Miles from Home	Sandy	uncredited
1989	Sex, Lies, and Videotape	Cynthia Patrice Bishop	Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female Los Angeles Film Critics Association: New Generation Award Nominated " BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Nominated " Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress " Motion Picture Nominated " New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress
1990	Pretty Woman	Kit De Luca
	Vital Signs	Lauren Rose
	Quigley Down Under	Crazy Cora
1991	Once Around	Jan Bella
	Under Suspicion	Angeline
1992	Where the Day Takes You	The Interviewer
1994	Nina Takes a Lover	Nina
1995	Stuart Saves His Family	Julia
1997	The Apocalypse	Goad
	Suicide Kings	Lydia
1998	Gargoyles: Brothers Betrayed	Fox	voice
	With Friends Like These..	Joanne Hersh
1999	Eat Your Heart Out	Jacqueline Fosburg
2003	A House on a Hill	Gaby
2005	Checking Out	Flo Applebaum	Palm Beach International Film Festival Award for Best Actress
	Havoc	Joanna Lang
2011	Haywire	Mallory Kane (voice)	uncredited
	Few Options	Bus Ticket Agent
2012	Least Among Saints	Jolene
Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1987	Spenser: For Hire	Sharon	Episode: "On The Night He Was Betrayed"
1988	Crime Story	Theresa Farantino	Episode: "Protected Witness"
1989	The Equalizer	Trudy Collins	Episode: "The Caper"
	Miami Vice	Tania Louis	Episode: "Leap of Faith"
1993	For Their Own Good	Jo Mandell
1994	The Stand	Nadine Cross	TV miniseries
1995	Fallen Angels	Peggy	Episode: "Fly Paper"
1996	The Right to Remain Silent	Nicole Savita
2001	Sister Mary Explains It All	Angela DiMarco
	Jenifer	Jenifer Estess
2003	The Electric Piper	Mrs. Robinson (voice)
1997"2003	Just Shoot Me!	Maya Gallo	Main Cast; 149 episodes Nominated " Golden Globe Award for Best Actress " Television Series Musical or Comedy (1999) Nominated " Satellite Award for Best Actress " Television Series Musical or Comedy (2001)
2003	The Handler	Karen	Episode: "Homewrecker's Ball"
2006	Related	Ann Sorelli	Episode: "Pilot"
	Veronica Mars	Harmony Chase	3 episodes
2007"2010	Saving Grace	Rhetta Rodriguez	Main Cast; 46 episodes
2010	In Plain Sight	Mia Cusato	Episode: "Death Becomes Her"
	The Defenders	Judge Anna Desanti	Episode: "Nevada v. Sen. Harper"
	Medium	Susannah Collings	Episode: "The People in Your Neighborhood"
2011	Hot in Cleveland	Caroline	Episode: "Beards"
2012	Talhotblond	Carol	TV movie
2013	The Mentalist	Miriam Gottlieb	Episode: "Red John's Rules"