Laura Niemi is a stage, film and TV actress. A native Angelino, she grew up in Santa Monica and the San Fernando Valley. She started studying at The Academy of Performing Arts in Los Angeles at a young age. The daughter of a movie producer and an insurance salesman, the family then moved to the east coast where she studied piano at the prestigious Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. She spent her teens and early 20s back in California, where she swapped her piano for a bass guitar playing in many L.A. based bands. As a trained theater actress she has performed at The Geffen Playhouse, South Coast Rep and The Taper and is the Artistic Director and founder of the multi-award winning Lost Angels Theatre Company (which landed her awards both as a producer and an actor). Best known for her performance as "Marilyn Pearson" on the NBC series "This Is Us (2016)". As the mother in Jack's (Milo Ventimiglia) struggling and dysfunctional working class family, her character gained recognition in the critically acclaimed season 3 episode "This Is Us: Vietnam (2018)", which landed Niemi an FYC Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 2019. She landed her first TV credit in Joss Whedon's "Firefly (2002)" and has been continuously working in television and film ever since.