Laura San Giacomo

About Laura San Giacomo

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! and Kit De Luca in the blockbuster film Pretty Woman, as well as other work on television and in films.

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 was raised Catholic and grew up in Denville, New Jersey. San Giacomo discovered acting while attending Morris Knolls High School and subsequently earned a degree in fine arts at the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. She also attended Washington College. San Giacomo then went on to appear in several theater productions. San Giacomo has appeared on the Los Angeles stage in the Garry Marshall-Lowell Ganz production of Wrong Turn at Lungfish, the Princeton/McCarter Theatre production of Three Sisters and Off-Broadway in Beirut. She has 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.

One of San Giacomo's first television appearances of merit was on Miami Vice in 1989 for the episode, "Leap Of Faith" as Tania Lewis. This 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) and her presence threatened to thwart his relationship with Hillary Martin (Carmen Thomas). However, San Giacomo first drew international attention in Steven Soderbergh's film, Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989), which also marked her film debut. Her work was nominated for a Golden Globe, and she also received a Los Angeles Film Critics' Association New Generation Award. The film itself was honored with the Cannes Film Festival's prestigious Grand Prize, the Palme d'Or. San Giacomo cemented her reputation as a bankable actress from her role as Julia Roberts' character's wisecracking friend Kit De Luca in the film Pretty Woman (1990). The blockbuster movie 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), Where the Day Takes You (1992), and Nina Takes a Lover (1994). She also appeared 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. In 2001, San Giacomo landed the starring role in the Jenifer Estess bio-pic Jenifer, which aired on CBS in October of that year.