Laura Ramsey

A Waitress in the Right Place

Laura Ramsey was waiting tables at a restaurant on Sunset Boulevard when a talent scout noticed her. The year was 2002. It was a movie-worthy start for someone who came from a small town in Wisconsin and had no industry connections.

Her first real job was playing herself in a reality show parody. But the industry wanted her for genre films. In 2005, she appeared in Lords of Dogtown and from there kept working nonstop for years.

Hollywood quickly devours what it doesn't understand.

In 2006, She's the Man arrived. She played Olivia and shared the screen with Amanda Bynes in a comedy that performed very well at the box office. It was the moment her face began covering teenagers' binders across half the world.

But Ramsey didn't want to be just the pretty girl in the latest romantic comedy. In 2008 she got muddy in The Ruins. It was a physically demanding shoot under the Australian sun that tested her endurance. Critics noted that she carried the film's dramatic weight better than her co-stars.

Mud in the Mayan Ruins

That horror shoot in the jungle was a turning point. The actress had to film scenes of exhausting psychological intensity. And she did it without complaining about the extreme heat or the endless makeup sessions.

And the gamble paid off.

After that project, her roles became more selective and varied. She appeared in Kill the Irishman in 2011 and in Are You Here in 2013. In the latter, she worked alongside Owen Wilson and Zach Galifianakis in a much more subdued register.

Her name appeared on every list of future stars.

Television came knocking with an ambitious project that seemed designed just for her. In 2015 she starred in Hindsight for the network VH1. She played Becca, a woman who travels back in time to the nineties to correct her youthful mistakes.

Absolute Silence After Success

The series received excellent reviews from specialized critics. Audiences connected with its blend of nostalgia and existential drama about second chances. But the network canceled the renewal for a second season after officially announcing it, due to changes in its leadership.

That business move left Ramsey in an awkward position within the industry.

Since the end of that series in 2015, she hasn't appeared in the credits of any big-budget production. Her retreat from the screen has now lasted nearly a decade.

She lives away from the media noise of Los Angeles and doesn't use social media publicly. Her last recorded appearance on a set was for the finale of that television production that never got a continuation. The cancellation of Hindsight in August 2015 was her last professional contract signed to date.