Laura Bell Bundy

She is the niece of Marcia Malone Bell, Miss Kentucky 1978 and 1979 Top Ten Miss America semifinalist.

Bell Bundy was diagnosed with celiac disease when she was about 18 years old.

Laura Ashley Bell Bundy–Hinkle (born April 10, 1981) is an American actress and singer.

Her career started as a child, when her mother entered her in beauty pageants, where she would sing as a talent.

After recognizing her singing ability, her mother took her to New York City, where she found success as a child actress and model, signing with Ford Modeling Agency in 1986.

She was cast as the lead in Ruthless! at age 9 in 1991.

She is best known for originating the Broadway roles of Amber Von Tussle in the musical version of Hairspray and Elle Woods in the musical version of Legally Blonde, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award.

In 1991, she moved to New York and attended the Professional Children's School while performing in Ruthless!.

Five years later she moved back to Kentucky and graduated from Lexington Catholic High School.

Bell Bundy originated the role of Tina Denmark in Ruthless! The Musical which opened Off-Broadway in 1992.

Tina Denmark is a child actress who wants to be in show business, and she'll do anything to get what she wants.

For this role, she was nominated for a 1993 Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical.

In 1995, at the age of 14, Bell Bundy appeared in the film Jumanji, playing the younger version of Bonnie Hunt's character, Sarah Whittle.

During this time she began writing songs.

Her first band was formed at the age of 18.

While performing in Hairspray, she enrolled in NYU as a sociology major, but did not graduate.

Her parents divorced in 1997 when she was 16 years old; both later remarried.

Bell Bundy's theatre credits outside of New York City include the national tour of The Sound of Music with Marie Osmond and Gypsy with Betty Buckley and Deborah Gibson at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey (1998).

Bell Bundy reprised the role of Elle Woods in the U.S. national tour of Legally Blonde: The Musical as a temporary replacement for the injured Becky Gulsvig, alongside Lauren Zakrin.

In 2002, at the age of 21, she made her Broadway debut in the musical Hairspray, originating the role of Amber Von Tussle.

Amber is a bratty, selfish resident princess of The Corny Collins Show.

Bell Bundy was next a Glinda standby for Kristin Chenoweth in Wicked.

She starred as Sherrie Christian in the jukebox musical Rock of Ages in Los Angeles.

From 2007 to July 2008, she starred on Broadway in Legally Blonde: The Musical where she originated the lead role of Elle Woods.

Elle is a sorority sister, president of the Delta Nu who finds herself at Harvard University studying to become a lawyer.

For this role she received her first Tony Award nomination for Best Leading Actress in a Musical.

On September 27, 2008, she participated in a benefit concert for Anaheim, California's the Chance Theatre with fellow Wicked alum Eden Espinosa and with Spring Awakening alum Lea Michele for the Broadway Chance Style: Up Close and Personal concert.

Bell Bundy began her brief run on January 13, 2009, and ended on February 22, 2009.

She would go on to play Elle again during the Nashville engagement of the national tour from June 23–28, 2009.

However, she fractured her arm during the June 27, 2009 performance, finished the show, and was rushed to the hospital immediately after.

In 2010 she signed to Mercury Records Nashville and released her two country music singles, "Giddy On Up" and "Drop on By".

Bundy is a co-founder of Womxn of Tomorrow, a foundation that supports and encourages women and women's rights.

In 2023, she returned to Broadway, starring in The Cottage.

Laura Ashley Bell Bundy was born in Euclid, Ohio, and raised in Lexington, Kentucky.

Her mother, Lorna Bundy-Jones (née Lorna Ann Bell), is a Lancome Beauty Advisor at Ulta, and her father, Don Bundy, was an electrical engineer.

On June 13, 2010, she was a presenter at the 64th Tony Awards ceremony.

Her father died in 2018.

She took dance lessons at Town and Village School of Dance in Paris, Kentucky.

When she was nine, she appeared in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular in New York City.

Finding success on stage, she auditioned for roles in Les Misérables and The Will Rogers Follies before landing the lead role in Ruthless!.