Laura Ilene Benanti is an American actress and singer.
She played Louise in the 2008 Broadway revival of Gypsy, winning the year's Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Benanti then appeared in the stage musical Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown in 2010, winning the Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She played Baroness Elsa Schräder in the 2013 NBC television production of The Sound of Music Live! and in 2015 began playing twin sisters Alura and Astra in the TV series Supergirl. Beginning in 2017, Benanti appears as Edie Randall in the TBS comedy The Detour. Since 2016, she has had a recurring role as First Lady Melania Trump on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Benanti is set to next appear in the lead role of Eliza Doolittle in the Lincoln Center Theater revival of My Fair Lady, beginning performances on October 23, 2018, for a limited run through February 17, 2019.
