Laura Marano

Laura Marano (born November 29, 1995) is an American actress and singer. She starred in Without a Trace for three seasons and also Back to You, in both instances playing the daughter of the main characters. She stars in the Disney Channel series Austin & Ally as Ally Dawson. Her older sister, Vanessa Marano is also an actress. Marano stars in the indie film, A Sort of Homecoming.[6] Marano also stars in the 2015 Disney Channel Original Movie Bad Hair Day along with Good Luck Charlie actress Leigh-Allyn Baker. She posed on the book covers of the sci-fi novel series, The Winslow Sisters: Defenders of Bay City as Kris Winslow.

Early Life
Marano is the daughter of college professor Damiano Marano and former actress Ellen Marano.[8] Her father is of Italian descent.[9] Her mother, Ellen, is the owner of Agoura Children's Theatre.[10] Marano revealed that she doesn't go to school on the set of Austin & Ally. Instead, she attended a regular high school: "I go to an actual high school and my friends and everybody there have been so supportive [...] It's nice when I'm not working to go to that school and be surrounded by really supportive friends."[11] She is also the younger sister of Vanessa Marano, who stars on ABC Family's Switched at Birth.

Acting
Marano's first acting role was when she was five years old.[12] Since then, she worked for multiple productions at theStage Door Theater. She has appeared in numerous commercials and had small roles on Ghost Whisperer, Medical Investigation, Huff and Joan of Arcadia. Her bigger roles in television have been in Without a Trace and other shows. She has also been heard in the animated films Finding Nemo and Ice Age: The Meltdown. She played the child role ofKeira Knightley's character in the film The Jacket and had a small flashback role in the film Superbad. She was a regular cast member on the FOX game show, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? and played the role of Gracie Carr on FOX's sitcom Back to You.

Marano has since appeared in several episodes of The Sarah Silverman Program. Initially she was cast in the pilot episode, "Batteries", as the child version of Sarah Silverman, and the writers liked her so much they brought her back for a larger role as a girl Sarah coaches to win a beauty pageant ("Not Without My Daughter"). On the DVD commentary track, co-star Brian Posehn notes that Marano knew everyone else's lines better than they did. She also appeared in Dexter as the child version of Debra Morgan. She also played the child version of a character played byDiana Scarwid, Alice Shaw, sister of Angela Petrelli, on Heroes. Marano is best known for her role as Ally Dawson on the Disney Channel series Austin & Ally.[13][14] In 2015 Marano starred in Disney Channel's Original Movie, "Bad Hair Day."

Music
In 2013, Marano recorded four solo songs and one duet with Ross Lynch for the soundtrack album Austin & Ally: Turn It Up.[15] "Me and You" debuted within the U.S. Billboard Kid Digital Songs chart at number thirteen before rising to the sixth spot, spending eleven weeks on the chart.[16] "Redial" debuted at number nineteen before peaking at number eighteen, spending four weeks on the chart.[16] Also in 2013, Marano recorded a duet with her Austin & Ally co-star Ross Lynch entitled "I Love Christmas" for Disney Channel's third holiday compilation album, Holidays Unwrapped.[17]On November 25, 2013, the song was released as a promotional single.[17] On December 14, "I Love Christmas" debuted within the U.S. Billboard Holiday Digital Songs chart peaking at number fifty.[18] Marano sings, dances, and writes songs. She hopes to perform in stage musicals in the future.[19][20][21] In 2014, Marano appeared in a music video produced for British pop-rock group The Vamps and Demi Lovatocalled "Somebody To You".[22] In February 2014, Marano recorded "The Me That You Don't See" for the album Disney Channel Play It Loud; the song peaked at number eighteen within the U.S. Billboard Kid Digital Songs chart.[16]

In March 2015, Marano stated that she had signed a record deal with Universal's Big Machine Records.[1]

The Winslow Sisters: Defenders of Bay City
Marano and her sister, Vanessa posed on the covers of numerous book episodes of the sci-fi action novel series, The Winslow Sisters: Defenders of Bay City as Human/Alien hybrid sisters choses to battle evil alien insects from invading Earth and the town called Bay City. Laura posed as tomboy, Kris Winslow, while older sister, Vanessa posed as Kris's sensible older sister, Mel.