Laura Benanti

The beautiful, award-winning Laura Benanti is a multi-talented stage and screen actress, author, and singer-songwriter known for the TBS comedy, The Detour, and for her critically acclaimed performance as Elsa Schrader in NBC’s The Sound of Music Live! Over the course of her Broadway career, she has received five Tony Award nominations, winning Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Louise in the 2008 revival of Gypsy. Her most recent project was the lauded HBO streamed Homeschool Musical: Class of 2020. And her debut, self-titled, solo pop album was released in October 2020. Her first book, M is for Mama, co-written with Kate Mangiameli and illustrated by Kate Weston, is an hilarious modern mom’s ABC board book.

Born in New York to showbusiness parents, Benanti showed early interest in musical theatre, and after appearing in several school productions, she won a Paper Mill Playhouse Rising Star Award for Outstanding Actress in a High School production for the title role of Hello Dolly! She graduated from school in 1997 and was recommended to audition for the Broadway revival of The Sound of Music. She was cast in a minor role, but eventually went on to play the lead to critical acclaim. A successful stage career blossomed, and soon the TV and films roles came in, including for shows such as Life on Mars, Law & Order, Elementary, Nashville, Supergirl, and Gossip Girl. She also began to regularly impersonate Melania Trump on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Aside from acting, she has featured in many original cast albums of her Broadway shows, and has written her own material since 2000. She released her first solo single in 2016.

Benanti is prolific on social media, regularly connecting with her legions of fans and followers via Twitter and Instagram, and through Facebook. She also has her own YouTube channel, Laura Benanti, full of amazing and hilarious videos capturing her life and career. She also has her own official website, laurabenanti.com.