Laura Bell Bundy

Suffering from congenital heart defects herself, Laura Bell Bundy is the spokesperson for the American Heart Association. In 2015, she underwent an open-heart surgery to treat a ventricular septal defect.

She announced her engagement to TBS executive Thom Hinkle in December 2015, after four years of dating. They married on June 3, 2017 in Arcadia, California.

Laura Bell Bundy was born on April 10, 1981, in Euclid, Ohio, USA, to Lorna Bundy-Jones and Don Bundy. She grew up in Lexington, Kentucky. Her mother works at a Victoria's Secret store and her father is an electrical engineer. Her parents divorced when she was 16. Both of her parents have remarried since.

She was trained in dancing at Town and Village School of Dance in Paris, Kentucky. When she was nine, she made her stage debut with a regional theatre company, and at the age of 14, she acted in the film ‘Jumanji’. During this time, she also began writing songs, and formed her first band at the age of 18. In 1999, she graduated from Lexington Catholic High School.

When she was 18, she was diagnosed with celiac disease, a serious autoimmune disorder.

In 1992, Laura Bell Bundy played the role of Tina Denmark in the musical play ‘Ruthless! The Musical’. Premiered at an Off-Broadway theatre, it was an all-female musical with music by Marvin Laird and lyrics by Joel Paley.

In 1993, she appeared in two films—‘The Adventures of Huck Finn’, and ‘Life with Mikey’. She played Young Sarah Whittle in ‘Jumanji’ in 1995.

For two years, she appeared as Marah Lewis in 10 episodes of ‘Guiding Light’, which was aired from October 1999 to October 2001 on CBS. She was also seen in television shows like ‘Veronica Mars’, ‘Happy Hour’, ‘Modern Men’, and ‘Cold Case and Strangers with Candy’. She also appeared in several short web videos, playing various comedic characters, such as Justice Goode and Shocantelle Brown.

In 2002, she made her debut at Broadway Theater, with the musical ‘Hairspray’, in which she did another originating role of Amber Von Tussle. She was a standby for the role of Glinda in ‘Wicked’, which she continued till 2004.

In 2007, she released two albums—‘Longing for a Place Already Gone’, and ‘I'll Be Home for Christmas.’ From 2007 to 2008, she played the role of Elle Woods on Broadway in ‘Legally Blonde: The Musical’, and earned critical acclaims. She went on tour as one of the Von Trapp children in ‘The Sound of Music’ with singer Marie Osmond.

Laura Bell Bundy’s album ‘Achin and Shakin' debuted at number 5 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and at number 28 on the all-genre Billboard 200. Internationally, it charted at number 34 on the Norwegian Albums Chart. Her single ‘Giddy On Up’ was also a hit, and debuted at number 60 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in February 2010 and peaked at number 31 in May.