Spotlight On: Laura San Giacomo

For over two decades, Laura San Giacomo has effortlessly glided between film and television. She has also had the privilege of working on some of the finest television shows and films. Her career has been nothing short of blessed from the start.

Laura San Giacomo stars in Saving Grace on TNT

She began with brief appearances in the television series Spencer: For Hire and Crime Story in 1987. But in 1989, everyone took notice of the raven-haired beauty when she starred in the Steven Soderbergh film Sex, Lies and Videotape. Co-starring along with James Spader, Andie MacDowell and Peter Gallagher, they perhaps had no idea that such a small independent film would take the world by storm and make indie films a growing rage. With brief stops afterward in the television series The Equalizer and Miami Vice, Laura next surfaced as Julie Robert’s roommate in the sensation Pretty Woman. While Sex, Lies and Videotape introduced her to film connoisseurs, Pretty Woman helped make Laura a household name. Later that same year, she appeared in the Australian outback adventure film Quigley Down Under alongside ‘80’s heart-throb Tom Selleck.

Working steadily from that point forward, Laura’s next big television sensation was the Stephen King mini-series The Stand. Co-starring along with Gary Sinese, Molly Ringwald and Rob Lowe, this futuristic look at a battle between good and evil captured the hearts and minds of fans around the world. Later that same year, Laura snagged a 14-episode arc in the fantasy series Gargoyles which starred Keith David and Salli Richardson-Whitfield (now known for her work in the sci-fi series Eureka). She then returned to extend that role in the mini-series Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles two years later.

Finally moving out of the sci-fi/fantasy realm, Laura moved on to work in the dramatic film Suicide Kings with Christopher Walken, Denis Leary and Sean Patrick Flannery, which was quickly followed by a role in the film With Friends Like These, which co-starred Adam Arkin, David Strathaim and Jon Tenney.

Simultaneously, Laura landed the role for which she would become best known, the role of Maya Gallo in the Steven Levitan comedy series Just Shoot Me, which ran for 7 seasons. It was in Just Shoot Me that Laura’s ability to quickly respond to fastball one-liners caught viewers’ attention. Laura quickly proved that she could hold her own against her heavy-hitting comedy co-stars George Segal, David Spade, Enrico Colantoni and Wendie Malick. With seven years to fine-tune her comedic skills and perfect the role of the straight-man in a scene full of comedy free-for-all, Laura was ready for her next big television role, on TNT’s Saving Grace.

But before that, she took a moment to make a special guest star appearance in Rob Thomas’ crime noir drama Veronica Mars, rejoining her former co-star Enrico Colantoni. It was a humorous nod to their former characters on Just Shoot Me and fans were delighted to see them romantically paired once again.

However, these days Laura is best known as Rhetta Rodriguez in the cutting-edge drama Saving Grace. Playing a forensic specialist and the childhood friend of Holly Hunter’s Grace Hanadarko, Laura deftly portrays the struggles of a wife and mother working to maintain a tough career and the even tougher job of keeping Grace Hanadarko from sliding over to the dark-side. Laura’s natural resilience shimmers beneath the surface and she renders a perfectly nuanced performance. We cry when she cries and we laugh when she laughs. As Saving Grace enters its final season, it will be a privilege to watch Laura continue to be the heart and voice of reason in a dark and tumultuous show.

Saving Grace returns for its fourth and final season beginning on Monday, March 29th at 10/9c on TNT.