Laura San Giacomo

San Giacomo, an Italian-American, was born November 14, 1961 or 1962, in West Orange, New Jersey, the daughter of MaryJo and John San Giacomo, a paper mill owner. She grew up in Denville Township, New Jersey, and discovered acting while attending Morris Knolls High School. In 1984, she received a fine arts degree, specializing in acting, from Carnegie Mellon School of Drama in Pittsburgh.After graduating, she moved to New York. San Giacomo then went on to appear in several theater productions, including the Garry Marshall–Lowell Ganz production of Wrong Turn at Lungfish in Los Angeles, the Princeton/McCarter Theatre production of Three Sisters, and off-Broadway in Beirut. She starred in Italian American Reconciliation, regional productions of Shakespeare's The Tempest, As You Like It and Romeo and Juliet as well as Crimes of the Heart. In a review of the Walnut Street Theatre 1986 presentation of As You Like It, San Giacomo received a special mention: "although doll-like Laura San Giacomo had only a minor role as a wilful shepherdess, she sank her fangs into it and received the only show-interrupting applause of the evening."