Laura Jean Reese Witherspoon (born March 22, 1976) is an American actress. Witherspoon skyrocketed to superstardom with the Legally Blonde films and is often times considered to be the next Julia Roberts. In December 2005 Reese was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role in Walk the Line in which she portrays real life country legend June Carter Cash. She is considered to the the frontrunner for the 78th Annual Academy Awards in 2006.

Witherspoon was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to John Witherspoon (a surgeon) and Betty Reese (a nurse and college professor); Reese is a direct descendant of Scottish-born John Witherspoon, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence and founder of Princeton University, who was also a Presbyterian minister. Because her father worked for the US military in Wiesbaden, Germany, Reese lived there for four years as a small child. After returning to the United States, Witherspoon spent much of her childhood and adolescence in Nashville. She has an older brother named John, who works as a real estate broker. After graduating high school from Nashville's prestigious Harpeth Hall School, she attended Stanford University as a literature major. After completing a year of her studies, Reese left Stanford to pursue her acting career.