Mackenzie Phillips

Laura Mackenzie Phillips was born on November 10, 1959, in Alexandria, Virginia. She is the daughter of John Phillips, a singer from The Mamas and the Papas. Phillips attended Highland Hall Waldorf School in Northridge, California. At age 12, she formed a band with classmates. During one of their performances, casting agent Fred Roos spotted her, leading to an audition for George Lucas’s 1973 film “American Graffiti.” She secured the role of Carol Morrison, a character she later reprised in “More American Graffiti” (1979). Due to California state law, producer Gary Kurtz became her legal guardian for the duration of the filming of “American Graffiti.”

Phillips gained wider recognition in the 1970s for her role as Julie Cooper (later Horvath) on the television sitcom “One Day at a Time,” which premiered in 1975. During her tenure on the show, she earned a salary of $50,000 per week. Her career during this period was affected by personal struggles with substance abuse. In 1980, she was dismissed from “One Day at a Time” but returned in 1981 after engaging in treatment. She was permanently dismissed in 1983 following a relapse and refusal to undergo a drug test.

After her early career, Phillips continued to act in various film and television projects. From the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, she performed as a singer with a re-formed version of The Mamas & the Papas, known as The New Mamas and The Papas. In 1999, she co-starred in the Disney Channel series “So Weird” as Molly Phillips, a fictional rock star, and performed original songs for the show. In 2011, she received an Honorary Best Actress award at the Female Eye Film Festival for her performance in the film “Peach Plum Pear.” In 2016, Phillips began working as a drug rehabilitation counselor at the Breathe Life Healing Center in West Hollywood, California. She also appeared in the rebooted “One Day at a Time” (2017–2020) as Pam Valentine, portraying a counselor, and had a recurring role as Barbara Denning in “Orange Is the New Black” (2018). Phillips has also authored two books, “High on Arrival” (2009) and “Hopeful Healing: Essays on Managing Recovery and Surviving Addiction” (2017).