Laura Marano

Laura Marie Marano (born November 29, 1995) is a talented American actress and singer. She gained popularity for her role as Ally Dawson in the Disney Channel series Austin & Ally. Marano has been part of the series Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? and starred in Without a Trace for three seasons and Back to You. Over her career, she has also starred in the indie film A Sort of Homecoming, Disney Channel's Original Movie Bad Hair Day, A Cinderella Story: Christmas Wish, Netflix's original movie The Perfect Date, and the Netflix interactive romcom Choose Love. Marano was born in Los Angeles, California, the younger daughter of a college professor and a former actress. She showed interest in acting at the young age of five. Remarkably, while juggling her acting jobs, she attended traditional school and later enrolled at the University of Southern California majoring in Philosophy, Politics, and Law. She began her transition into music when she signed with Big Machine Records in 2015 and made her debut as a music artist by releasing the single Boombox in 2016. Despite facing a setback when Big Machine Records dropped all of their pop artists in 2016, Laura Marano remained resilient and continued releasing music as an independent artist. She also started her own label called Flip Phone Records as she is known for her use of a flip phone. In 2023, Marano released her debut studio album, I May Be An Actress, but I Can't Fake How I Feel. Her career doesn't stop there, as she is also committed to philanthropic work ranging from being an ambassador for UNICEF to hosting child-friendly fashion shows.