Laura Elizabeth Dern (born February 10, 1967 in Los Angeles, California) is an American actress. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in the movie Rambling Rose. Her other movies include Jurassic Park, Blue Velvet, A Perfect World, Wild at Heart, and October Sky (based on the book Rocket Boys by Homer Hickham. Dern, the daughter of Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd and the granddaughter to former Utah governor George H. Dern, married Ben Harper on December 23, 2005 after they first started seeing each other five years earlier. They have two children, son Ellery and daughter Jaya.