Laura Bell Bundy

Laura Bell Bundy is an American actress, singer, and songwriter born on April 10, 1981, in Euclid, Ohio, and raised in Lexington, Kentucky. Her father, Don Bundy, was an electrical engineer who died in 2018, and her mother, Lorna Bundy-Jones, is a Lancôme Beauty Advisor. Her parents divorced in 1997. Bundy is the niece of Marcia Malone Bell, who held the title of Miss Kentucky in 1978 and was a Top Ten semifinalist at the Miss America pageant in 1979. She was diagnosed with celiac disease around age 18 and took dance lessons at Town and Village School of Dance in Paris, Kentucky.

Bundy's path to the stage began early, when her mother entered her in beauty pageants where she performed as a singer. Recognizing her talent, her mother brought her to New York City, where she signed with Ford Modeling Agency in 1986 and began pursuing acting. At age nine she appeared in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular and auditioned for productions including Les Misérables and The Will Rogers Follies before landing the lead role of Tina Denmark in Ruthless! The Musical, which opened Off-Broadway in 1992. That performance earned her a 1993 Drama Desk Award nomination and an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Musical. While performing in Ruthless!, she attended the Professional Children's School in New York. She later returned to Kentucky and graduated from Lexington Catholic High School.

Her Broadway career spans 1993 to 2023. In 2002, at age 21, she made her Broadway debut originating the role of Amber Von Tussle in the musical Hairspray, playing a self-centered regular on The Corny Collins Show. She subsequently served as a standby for Kristin Chenoweth in the role of Glinda in Wicked. From 2007 to July 2008, Bundy starred on Broadway in Legally Blonde: The Musical, originating the lead role of Elle Woods, a Delta Nu sorority president who pursues a law degree at Harvard University. The performance earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical and a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Musical, both in 2007. She later reprised the role of Elle Woods on the national tour as a temporary replacement for the injured Becky Gulsvig, beginning January 13, 2009, and concluding February 22, 2009. She performed the role again during the Nashville engagement of the tour from June 23 to 28, 2009, fracturing her arm during the June 27 performance and completing the show before being taken to the hospital. In 2023, Bundy returned to Broadway starring in The Cottage, which ran at the Hayes Theater from July through October of that year.

Her stage work outside New York includes the national tour of The Sound of Music with Marie Osmond, a production of Gypsy alongside Betty Buckley and Deborah Gibson at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey in 1998, and the lead role of Sherrie Christian in Rock of Ages in Los Angeles. She appeared as Trixie Norton, a former burlesque dancer seeking a return to show business, in the musical The Honeymooners at the Paper Mill Playhouse in 2017, directed by John Rando and co-starring Michael McGrath, Michael Mastro, and Leslie Kritzer. In June 2018 she played the lead in a production of Sweet Charity in Los Angeles, staged and directed by Kathleen Marshall. She also participated in The 24 Hour Plays in 2004.

On screen, Bundy appeared in The Adventures of Huck Finn and Life with Mikey, both in 1993, and played the young Sarah Whittle in the 1995 film Jumanji, portraying the younger version of Bonnie Hunt's character at age 14. In 1999 she joined the CBS daytime soap opera Guiding Light as Marah Lewis, a role she held until 2001. She appeared in the 2006 film adaptation of Dreamgirls. Her television credits include a recurring role as Becky, Robin's co-anchor, in the sixth season of How I Met Your Mother on CBS, a role she reprised in the spinoff How I Met Your Father. She played Shelby on The CW's Hart of Dixie from 2012 to 2015, a newcomer introduced as a love interest for George Tucker who later enters a relationship with Brick. In 2013 she starred as Dr. Jordan Denby, a psychologist and business partner for Charlie who attends Alcoholics Anonymous, on the FX sitcom Anger Management, also playing Jordan's twin sister Jessie. She starred in the 2015 Lifetime television film Becoming Santa alongside Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter, and played Rachel Raskin in The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder, a live-action sequel series that premiered on Paramount+ on March 31, 2022. Bundy served as a judge at the Miss America 2009 pageant and was a presenter at the 64th Tony Awards ceremony on June 13, 2010.

Bundy has also pursued a career in country music. She released her debut country album, Longing for a Place Already Gone, in 2007. After departing Legally Blonde in 2008 she relocated to Nashville to record her second album, Achin' and Shakin', released April 13, 2010, which debuted at number five on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, number 28 on the Billboard 200, reached number 34 on the Norwegian Albums Chart, and sold over 70,000 copies in the United States as of June 26, 2010. In 2010 she signed to Mercury Records Nashville and released the singles "Giddy On Up" and "Drop on By." Her songs "Giddy On Up" and "Rebound" were featured in the Rock Band video game series. She appeared in Miranda Lambert's music video for "Only Prettier" alongside Kellie Pickler and Hillary Scott of Lady Antebellum. In 2012 she released the single "That's What Angels Do." She signed with Big Machine Records in mid-2013 and released "Two Step," a duet with Colt Ford that peaked at number 59 on the US Country Airplay chart. Her third album, Another Piece of Me, was released digitally in June 2015. Bundy is also a co-founder of Womxn of Tomorrow, a foundation that supports women and women's rights.