Laura Harrier

Laura Ruth Harrier was born on March 28, 1990, in Chicago, Illinois, and was raised in Evanston, Illinois. Her father, Temujin Harrier, is African American and her mother, Linda (née Sagan), is of Polish and English descent. Her father works in insurance and her mother is a speech pathologist. She has one younger brother, William. Her great-grandfather, through her maternal grandmother, Margaret Pickett Sagan, was J. Waskom Pickett, a notable minister, missionary, and philanthropist. As a child, she had a speech impediment until three years old, which her mother cured. Harrier was shy, so her mother put her in acting classes to gain more confidence. She attended Evanston Township High School, where she took some drama classes and played sports. While in high school, she became particularly interested in fashion and was voted best dressed. She began modeling at the age of 17 after being discovered by her mother's friend, a location scout.

After graduating high school in 2008, Harrier moved to New York City to study art history at the New York University Gallatin School of Individualized Study. Upon arrival, Harrier chose to defer enrollment to continue a career in modeling. Throughout her modeling career she was represented by several prestigious agencies including IMG Models, Wilhelmina Models, and Elite Model Management. Harrier modeled for magazines such as Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Elle, and Glamour. Additionally, she modeled for campaigns with companies such as Urban Outfitters, Macy's, American Eagle, Target, ALDO, Steve Madden, and L'Oréal. She was the face for Garnier for a time and appeared in one of their national commercials. She eventually found modeling to be unfulfilling and pursued acting after appearing in commercials and student films. Harrier studied acting in the two-year program the William Esper Studio, graduating in 2015. After graduating, she thought she would be doing "weird, Off Broadway theater".