Laura Cayouette

Laura Cayouette (born July 11, 1964) is an American actress, writer, producer, and director.

Laura Cayouette
Born	(1964-07-11) July 11, 1964 Washington, D.C., U.S.
Alma mater	University of South Alabama
Occupation	Film/television actress
Years active	1995–present
Spouse(s)	Andy Gallagher (2014-present)

Early life

Cayouette was born in Washington, D.C. [1] and grew up in Maryland. Laura graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park with a BA in English, then graduated a year later from University of South Alabama with an M.A. in Creative Writing and English Literature. In 2014, Cayouette was made their Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient [2] and her name was added to the university's clock tower. Before pursuing a career in acting, Cayouette worked as a nightclub DJ, model, English professor, dress shop manager [3] and a ticket taker at Universal City Walk Hollywood. Laura studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York [3] before moving to Los Angeles in 1992. There, she studied with Milton Katselas at the Beverly Hills Playhouse, then with the highly regarded Ivana Chubbuck at her studio.[4]

Career

Best known as Leonardo DiCaprio's sister in Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, Cayouette's acting career started in 1996 with a role in The Evening Star (1996), the sequel to Terms of Endearment, opposite Shirley MacLaine and Juliette Lewis. The same year she worked with David Duchovny and Garry Shandling on an award-winning episode of The Larry Sanders Show and followed that with the Ben Stiller episode of Friends as Ross’ first date after the Rachel break-up.[5]

Cayouette has worked with Quentin Tarantino four times. He first directed her in Kill Bill, Vol. 2 (2004), then produced as she acted in Daltry Calhoun, a 2005 film directed by Charles Bronson’s daughter, Katrina Holden Bronson. In 2008, Cayouette and Tarantino produced Hell Ride, a biker movie featuring Cayouette, Dennis Hopper, Michael Madsen and David Carradine, and followed that up with Django Unchained (2012).[5][1]

During her 25-year career, Laura has worked with Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Will Smith, Richard Dreyfuss, Kevin Costner, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Abigail Breslin, Elizabeth Banks, Scott Bakula, Kerry Washington, Walton Goggins, Gene Hackman, Jamie Foxx, Christopher Lloyd, Christina Hendricks, Hayden Christensen, David Morse, Michael Jai White, Kate Bosworth, Ruth Buzzi, Mykelti Williamson, Malcolm McDowell, Lauren Holly, Johnny Knoxville, Josh Charles, Kofi Siriboe, Sammo Hung, Candy Clark, Arsenio Hall, Dick Van Dyke and many more. Directors include Tony Scott, Sam Raimi, Anthony Hemingway, Cary Joji Fukunaga, Todd Holland, Peter Gould, Martin Campbell, Louis Letterier, and Bertrand Blier.[5]

Laura directed Joanna Cassidy and Danica McKellar in the award-winning 2004 short film, Intermission[6] then directed Richard Dreyfuss and Mircea Monroe in the 2011 short film, Lone Star Trixie.[7] Cayouette is the first person to ever wear a Project Runway dress on the red carpet. Designer Austin Scarlett accompanied her to the event.[8]

Laura has written seven books including Know Small Parts: An Actor's Guide to Turning Minutes into Moments and Moments into a Career with foreword by Richard Dreyfuss and endorsements from Kevin Costner, Reginald Hudlin, Lou Diamond Phillips and more. She is also the author of a coming of age novel, Lemonade Farm, and the amateur-sleuth Charlotte Reade Mysteries series set in New Orleans[3][9] and highlighting cultural events like Jazz Fest, Southern Decadence, and the Mardi Gras Indians’ Super Sunday, as well as moments like the Saints Super Bowl victory during Carnival, the BP oil spill, and Hurricane Isaac.[5]

Cayouette writes a blog about her beloved city, LAtoNOLA.com,[10] recounting many of those same events as well as dancing with the New Orleans Pussyfooters in the Mardi Gras parades and riding with Quentin Tarantino in the Monarch float after she arranged for him to preside over the Krewe of Orpheus parade during Mardi Gras 2014.[5]

She was elected as a Convention Delegate in the 2019 SAG-AFTRA New Orleans Local election.[11] More recent acting roles include the recurring Marlene in Ava Duverney's Queen Sugar and John Schneider's wife in the multi-award-winning film, Hate Crime (2017).[12]

Personal life

On May 24, 2014, Laura married Andy Gallagher in New Orleans.[13][14]

Filmography

Films

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1996	The Evening Star	Becky
1997	Lovelife	Woman in the Window
1998	Krippendorf's Tribe	TV Studio Woman
	Enemy of the State	Christa Hawkins
1999	For Love of the Game	Masseuse
2000	Meeting Daddy	Happy Ending Girl	Uncredited
	Baby Luv	Megan
2001	Anacardium AKA Deranged	Ashley
2004	Kill Bill: Vol. 2	Rocket
	Intermission (Short)	Toilet Paper Lady	Writer, Director
2005	Daltry Calhoun	Wanda Banks
2007	Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane	Dr. Kelly
2008	Hell Ride	Dani	Also associate producer
	The Appearance of Things	Elizabeth
	Pulse 2: Afterlife	Amy	Direct-to-video
	Pulse 3: Invasion
2011	Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown	Vail
	Green Lantern	Party Guest #1
	Brawler
	Lone Star Trixie (Short)	Trixie	Writer, Director
2012	Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter	Vadoma Maid	Uncredited
	Django Unchained	Lara Lee Candie-Fitzwilly
2013	Now You See Me	Hypnotized Woman
2014	The Loft	Mrs. Kotkin
	American Heist	Lone Officer
	Dark Places	Krissi Cates' Mother
2015	Maggie	Linda	Uncredited
	Shark Island (TV Movie)	Dr. Palmer
	Sex School	Wanda Cox
2016	Convergence	Ester
	Like Son	Susie Rugger
	Inadmissible	Librarian
	Summertime	Paul's Mom
	Ozark Sharks	Diane
	Cold Moon	Ginny Darrish
2017	Bad Stepmother (TV Movie)	Jeanette
	Camera Store	Brenda Klammadge
	Hate Crime	Marie Demarco
2018	Cut Off	Bridget
	The Domestics	Connie

Television

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	The Larry Sanders Show	Carol	Episode: "Everybody Loves Larry"
	Flipper	Beth McKenzie	Episode: "Best of the Beach"
1997, 2004	Friends	Cailin	Episode: "The One With The Screamer" "The One with All the Other Ones: Part 2" (archive footage)
1999	Fantasy Island		Episode: "The Real Thing"
	Diagnosis: Murder	Evette	Episode: "Murder on the Hour"
	Nash Bridges	Stephanie Green	Episode: "Vendetta"
	Martial Law	Kay Morgan	Episode: "Call of the Wild"
2000	The Pretender	Jenna McGann	Episode: "Lifeline"
	JAG	Lieutenant Irene Charlton	Episode: "Body Talk"
2012–2013	Treme	Kay	Episode: "Knock with Me - Rock with Me" "Episode #4.4"
2014	True Detective	Theresa Weems	Episode: "Who Goes There"
2017	House of Cards	Woman	Episode: Chapter 57
2017–2018	Queen Sugar	Marlene	Episode: "After the Winter" Episode: "Caroling Dusk" Episode: "Freedom's Plow" Episode: "Dream Variations" Episode: "Your Passages Have Been Paid"

References

1. https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/entertainment_life/movies_tv/article_a3de82c0-487a-5250-b5d7-9d3a5ce8ac4a.html
2. https://www.southalabama.edu/departments/publicrelations/pressreleases/2014/usa_alumniserviceawards2014.html
3. https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/article_f98b3d7d-b4b6-5a3a-95eb-4fa6318d710a.html
4. http://onefilmfan.com/in-their-own-words-laura-cayouette-of-convergence/
5. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0147312/
6. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405048/?ref_=tt_mv
7. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1259213/
8. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0147312/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
9. https://www.amazon.com/Laura-Cayouette/e/B00ANI6G7U/
10. https://solawriters.org/2019/01/04/january-19th-speaker-laura-cayouette/
11. https://www.sagaftra.org/2019-sag-aftra-new-orleans-local-election-results
12. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4162034/
13. Bill Capo [@BillCapo] (24 May 2014). "Actress Laura Cayouette gets married in the heart of her favorite city, under the arch at Armstrong Park" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
14. https://latonola.wordpress.com/2014/06/17/our-new-orleans-wedding-and-second-line/

External links

• Laura Cayouette on IMDb