Tony Award-winner and five-time Tony Award nominee Laura Benanti is a highly celebrated stage and screen actress who recently debuted to rapturous reviews in the film “Worth” at the Sundance Film Festival opposite Michael Keaton, Stanley Tucci and Amy Ryan. Ms. Benanti also recently wrapped on the film “Here Today” starring opposite Billy Crystal and Tiffany Haddish. Her television credits include series regular roles on the Samantha Bee and Jason Jones produced TBS show “The Detour,” “Go On” opposite Matthew Perry, and “Starved” for FX as well as recurring and guest appearances “Supergirl,” ABC’s “Nashville” and “Eli Stone,” CBS’ “The Good Wife” and “Elementary,” Showtime’s “Nurse Jackie” and “The Big C,” NBC’s “The Sound of Music Live,” “Law and Order: SVU,” and USA’s “Royal Pains,”. She frequently appears on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” in her comedic portrayal of First Lady Melania Trump.
Most recently, Laura stars in the hit TV series “Younger” with Sutton Foster and Hilary Duff. Ms. Benanti made a triumphant return to Broadway last fall as Eliza Doolittle in Lincoln Center’s acclaimed production of My Fair Lady. A native of Kinnelon, New Jersey, she won Paper Mill Playhouse’s Rising Star Award for her portrayal of Dolly Levi in her high school production of Hello, Dolly!, and from there, she went on to take Broadway by storm, making her Broadway debut at the young age of 18 as Maria in The Sound of Music, opposite Richard Chamberlain. Since then, she has wowed in musicals and plays alike, most recently in Steve Martin’s hit Broadway play, Meteor Shower, where she co starred alongside Amy Schumer and Keegan Michael Key.
Other Broadway roles include Amalia Balash in She Loves Me, for which she was nominated for Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League Awards. For Lincoln Center, Laura was nominated for a Tony Award and won the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for her starring role in the Broadway production of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, and also starred in their Broadway production of Sarah Ruhl’s In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play. Ms. Benanti earned the 2008 Tony Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical, a Drama Desk Award, and an Outer Critics Circle Award for her revelatory portrayal of Gypsy Rose Lee in Gypsy opposite Patti LuPone. Other Broadway roles include The Wedding Singer, Nine (starring Antonio Banderas), her Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award-nominated performance of Cinderella in Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods, and her Tony nominated turn in Swing! Other distinguished theater performances include the Public Theater’s production of Christopher Durang’s Why Torture is Wrong and the People Who Love Them, Perdita in The Winter’s Tale at the Williamstown Theatre Festival opposite Kate Burton, Anne in A Little Night Music at the L.A. Opera opposite Victor Garber, Eileen in Wonderful Town opposite Donna Murphy, and Rosabella in The Most Happy Fella, both for City Center Encores! Ms. Benanti has performed numerous concert engagements, both solo in her critically-lauded “Tales from Soprano Isle,’ and with her mother, in their new duo show “The Story Goes On.” In September 2013, she released her debut album, “In Constant Search of the Right Kind of Attention: Live at 54 Below” on Broadway Records to rave reviews. Upcoming projects include “Go Slow”, a Jazz Crossover album for Sony Records and a comedic book on motherhood “M is for Mama and also Merlot” co-written wit her friend and acclaimed Met Soprano Kate Mangiameli.
