Childhood & Early Life
She was born on 7th January in 1982 in Philadelphia. Her mother is British and father American. She also has Irish, Scottish and Norwegian ancestry.
She grew up in Cherry Hill and lived for a year in Georgia. Her parents divorced soon after she was born. At the age of seven her mother remarried and thus she took up her step father’s surname ‘Cohan’.
Since her stepfather was Jewish, she converted to Judaism along with her mother. She then moved to the United Kingdom when she was thirteen and settled down in Surrey.
Lauren had a ‘Bat Mitzvah’ ceremony like every young girl did in the Jewish tradition. She has five half siblings the youngest being her half-sister. They all grew up together.
She aspired to become a child psychiatrist in her teens but after her higher education, she went on to study English Literature and Drama at the ‘University of Winchester’. During her years in the University she co-founded a theatre group and put up plays in the locality.
Her talent was soon recognised by many who came to watch her plays. However, she first completed her graduation and passed out of University before she took up work in London and Los Angeles.
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Career
Lauren began her film career with the movie ‘Casanova’ in which she played the minor role of Sister Beatrice. The romantic film released in 2005 and she shared screen space with Heath ledger playing the title role.
The same year she also made her first appearance on television when she was cast as Bela Talbot in the hit horror fantasy series ‘Supernatural’, she was signed on for three seasons and was cast in six episodes of the show, in which she plays a thief.
In 2006, she landed a major role as Charlotte Higginson in ‘National Lampoon’s Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj’, a sequel to the hit comedy film ‘National Lampoon’s Van Wilder’. She played an English beauty in the movie.
In 2007 she was seen in the film ‘Float’. She worked on non-commercial projects from 2007 to 2009 before she was offered the recurring role of a five hundred and sixty year old vampire in ‘The CW’s’ hit supernatural series ‘The Vampire Diaries’.
In 2010, she signed the role of September Jones in the American Sci-Fi action film ‘Death Race 2: Frankenstein Lives’, where she plays Death Race’s hostess and executive producer and a former Miss Universe winner.
The year 2010 brought with it several projects for Lauren. She guest starred in many Television shows such as ‘CSI: NY’, ‘Cold Case’, ‘Life’, ‘Modern Family’ in the episode ‘Unplugged’, and ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’.
In 2011, she agreed to play the recurring role of Vivian Volkoff, the charming daughter of the protagonist and a socialite, in NBC’s action-spy drama ‘Chuck’ for five episodes.
She also landed one of her most critically appraised roles as Maggie Greene in the AMC’s horror show ‘The Walking Dead’. She was introduced to the series in the second season where she played the recurring role of ‘Maggie Greene’. She was later offered a main role from season three onwards.
In 2012, she appeared as Lulu Pratt in the episode ‘British Hospital’ on ‘Childrens Hospital’. She also guest starred in ‘Law and Order: Special Victims Unit’ as Avery Jordan in the ‘Legitimate Rape’ episode.
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In 2014 she signed many projects. She was first seen in a main role in John Herzfeld’s drama film ‘Reach Me’ as Kate alongside the legendary Sylvester Stallone. As well as she was Exo Stranger in the video game, ‘Destiny’.
She also starred in the adult television animated spy sitcom ‘Archer’ in a recurring voice role as Juliana Calderon spanning four episodes. The same year, she played Stephanie in ‘Tim & Erica’s Bedtime Stories’.
In 2016, she played the lead role of Greta in the horror film ‘The Boy’; the film grossed around 35.8 million in the US and placed fifth at the box office. In ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ she appeared as Batman’s mother, Martha Wayne in the movie.
The same year, she continued work in AMC’s ‘The Walking Dead’, and starred in two episodes in the sitcom ‘The Mindy Project’ as Ashley.
She will be seen playing Leila Steinberg in the biographical film ‘All Eyez On Me’ formerly titled ‘Tupac’. In the film she co-stars with Demetrius Shipp Jr, Jamie Hector and Danai Gurira. The movie is slated to release in June, 2017.
Major Works
Her role in the Warner Bros. horror series ‘Supernatural’ may have been a short stint, but her performance as the racy thief welcomed future projects for Lauren. The show was a super hit with a rating of eight on ten on IMDb.
The film ‘National Lampoon’s Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj’ also met with success. Tough in comparison with its prequel it didn’t receive as many positive reviews. However it still generated over 2.9 million in its first week at the box office.
Undoubtedly, her best work has been in the TV drama thriller horror series ‘The Walking Dead’, where she plays the eldest child of the Greene family as well as the wife of Gwen. It has a rating of 8.5 on IMDb and 8.6 on TV.com. Her performance has been complimented in the show by several critics.
In the horror film ‘The Boy’ she plays the lead cast. The film received mixed reviews about its plot and storyline. However, ‘Variety’ appraised the performance of its star cast. ‘The Wrap’ disagreed with the movies average reviews and wrote that the movie was both “Creepy and Clever”.
Awards & Achievements
In 2012, she won the award for ‘Best Television Cast’ at the Satellite Awards. The following year, she won the award for ‘Best Ensemble Cast’ at the ‘Eyegore Awards’ once again for her performance in ‘The Walking Dead’.
She was nominated at the ‘Blood Guts UK Horror Awards’ in the category of ‘Best Actress’ for the American-Chinese film ‘The Boy’ in 2016.
In 2017, she was nominated at the ‘People’s Choice Awards’ for her role in ‘The Walking Dead’ for ‘Favorite Fantasy TV Actress’ and at the ‘iHorror Awards’ as ‘Best Actress – Horror Series’.
Personal Life & Legacy
At the age of 22 Lauren decided to move permanently to Los Angles and took up the job of a waitress at ‘The Cat &The Fiddle’ which is a restaurant and pub at Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles.
Though she presently resides at Los Angeles for work, she has bought a home in London as well. She lives an active life, apart from acting she is an avid reader, pianist, a singer and regularly trains in kickboxing and yoga.
Owing to her adulation for music she funds and supports the ‘Atlanta Music Project’ religiously. The organisation renders education in music for the under-privileged youth in Atlanta.
