Laura Ilene Benanti (née Vidnovic; July , ) is an American actress
and singer.Over the course of her Broadway career, she has received
five Tony Award nominations. She played Louise in the Broadway
revival of Gypsy, winning the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in
a Musical. Benanti then appeared in the stage musical Women on the
Verge of a Nervous Breakdown in , winning the Drama Desk Award and
Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She
played Elsa Schräder in the NBC television production of The Sound
of Music Live! and in , began playing twin sisters Alura and Astra in
the TV series Supergirl. Beginning in , Benanti appeared as Edie
Randall in the TBS comedy The Detour. Since , she has had a recurring
role as First Lady Melania Trump on The Late Show with Stephen
Colbert.Benanti was born in New York City to Linda Wonneberger, a
vocal coach and former actress, and Martin Vidnovic, a Broadway actor
and singer. She is of Serbian, German, and Irish heritage. Her parents
divorced when she was young and she moved to Kinnelon, New Jersey with
her mother and her stepfather Salvatore Benanti, a psychotherapist,
whose name she took and whom she has referred to as her father.Benanti
remembers being "very serious" and "a bit of an ugly duckling" as a
child; she was intensely interested in musical theatre, saying she
"came out of the womb as a -year-old". She was particularly interested
in the music of Stephen Sondheim at an early age and distanced herself
from other children. (In , Benanti told The New York Times that she
drew on this loneliness in her portrayal of the neglected Louise in
Gypsy.) Though her parents refused to let Laura audition for
professional theatre, Laura appeared in several high school and
community productions, including Evita (as Perón's mistress), Follies
(as Young Heidi), and Into the Woods (as Cinderella). At , Benanti
played the title role in her high school production of Hello, Dolly!
and won a Paper Mill Playhouse Rising Star Award for Outstanding
Actress in a high school production. She graduated from Kinnelon High
School in .
and singer.Over the course of her Broadway career, she has received
five Tony Award nominations. She played Louise in the Broadway
revival of Gypsy, winning the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in
a Musical. Benanti then appeared in the stage musical Women on the
Verge of a Nervous Breakdown in , winning the Drama Desk Award and
Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She
played Elsa Schräder in the NBC television production of The Sound
of Music Live! and in , began playing twin sisters Alura and Astra in
the TV series Supergirl. Beginning in , Benanti appeared as Edie
Randall in the TBS comedy The Detour. Since , she has had a recurring
role as First Lady Melania Trump on The Late Show with Stephen
Colbert.Benanti was born in New York City to Linda Wonneberger, a
vocal coach and former actress, and Martin Vidnovic, a Broadway actor
and singer. She is of Serbian, German, and Irish heritage. Her parents
divorced when she was young and she moved to Kinnelon, New Jersey with
her mother and her stepfather Salvatore Benanti, a psychotherapist,
whose name she took and whom she has referred to as her father.Benanti
remembers being "very serious" and "a bit of an ugly duckling" as a
child; she was intensely interested in musical theatre, saying she
"came out of the womb as a -year-old". She was particularly interested
in the music of Stephen Sondheim at an early age and distanced herself
from other children. (In , Benanti told The New York Times that she
drew on this loneliness in her portrayal of the neglected Louise in
Gypsy.) Though her parents refused to let Laura audition for
professional theatre, Laura appeared in several high school and
community productions, including Evita (as Perón's mistress), Follies
(as Young Heidi), and Into the Woods (as Cinderella). At , Benanti
played the title role in her high school production of Hello, Dolly!
and won a Paper Mill Playhouse Rising Star Award for Outstanding
Actress in a high school production. She graduated from Kinnelon High
School in .
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