Lauren Cohan

Lauren Cohan
Cohan at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con
Born	(1982-01-07) January 7, 1982 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, writer, producer
Years active	2005–present
Website
www.laurencohan.com

Lauren Cohan (born January 7, 1982) is an American-born English actress. She is best known for her roles as Bela Talbot on Supernatural, Rose on The Vampire Diaries, Vivian Volkoff on Chuck, and Maggie Greene in The Walking Dead.

Early life

Cohan was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She lived in Cherry Hill, New Jersey during her childhood before moving to her mother's native United Kingdom in her teens. Cohan's Scottish mother converted to Judaism when she married Cohan's stepfather. She was raised in the Jewish religion from the age of five, and had a Bat Mitzvah.^[1][2] She has a younger stepsister.^[3] Cohan graduated from the University of Winchester, where she studied Drama and English Literature, before touring with a theater company she co-founded at the university. Cohan then split her time and work between London and Los Angeles, California, working on several films as well as some non-commercial projects.

Career

Film

Cohan's major movie debut was the 2005 film Casanova as Sister Beatrice. In 2006, she starred in the sequel to National Lampoon's Van Wilder, National Lampoon's Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj playing the role of Charlotte Higginson. Her next role was in the 2007 film Float. In February 2010 she was cast in Death Race 2, along with co-stars Sean Bean and Danny Trejo.^[4]

Television

Cohan was cast in Season Three of Supernatural as Bela Talbot; a thief, appearing in six episodes, who procures valuable supernatural objects and sells them to very rich and possibly very powerful people in the supernatural world. It was the head of the CW who requested a second female lead be added to the show. To accommodate this Kripke made the originally planned recurring character Bela, to be a prominent character. Kripke placed her along with Katie Cassidy who was cast as Ruby. Bela was not received well by fans due to her conniving behavior, antagonistic self-centeredness, and consistent attempts to try to get the lead characters (the Winchester brothers) killed. The character was written out/killed off in the penultimate episode of Season 3.

She is also known for playing the recurring character Rose, a 560 year old vampire in The Vampire Diaries. In 2011, she joined the television series Chuck for a handful of episodes in a recurring role playing Vivian Volkoff, a "charming, sophisticated socialite" from the United Kingdom, and the daughter of primary villain, Alexei Volkoff.

Cohan at the True Blood party in 2013

She has also guest starred on shows such as Modern Family, CSI: NY, Cold Case, Life, and The Bold and the Beautiful.

Cohan starred in a pilot for The CW called Heavenly in which she played the lead character, an attorney who teams up with an angel; it was not picked up as a series.

She was cast in the second season of the AMC television series The Walking Dead based on the comic book series of the same name, in the recurring role of Maggie Greene. She was promoted to the main cast in the third season.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lauren Cohan.

• Official website
• Lauren Cohan at the Internet Movie Database