Lauren Cohan

Lauren Cohan Photo

LAUREN COHAN

Date of Birth: January 7, 1982

Lauren Cohan was born in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Her parents divorced when Lauren was young and by the time she was seven, her mother had remarried. Lauren took her stepfather's last name (Cohan) and both she and her mother converted to Judaism. When Lauren was 13, her family moved to Surrey, England, just outside of London. Lauren graduated from the University of Winchester in 2003 with a BA in Drama and English Literature.

During her third year at Winchester, Lauren and several of her fellow students co-founded a theatre company. They took their final production on tour to Edinburgh, Scotland. When she returned to London, she found an acting agent and began auditioning.

Lauren made her big screen debut with the role of Sister Beatrice in Lasse Hallström's Casanova (2005), starring Heath Ledger. She then moved to Los Angeles, where her first gig was a role in Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj (2006), starring Kal Penn.

After a guest appearance on the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful, Lauren landed a recurring role on the third season of the the CW sci-fi series Supernatural, playing the role of Bela. Her character was so popular that she soon became a regular.

From 2010 to 2012, Lauren played Rose on the popular series The Vampire Diaries, and that's when her career really heated up. She played a recurring role as Vivian on the action comedy series Chuck in 2011, then was cast in a starring role as Southern belle Maggie Greene during the second season of the AMC series The Walking Dead.

During hiatus from the show in 2015, she filmed a starring role in the horror flick The Boy (2016), playing a nanny hired to care for a young boy - only to find he's a doll, which may be haunted.

In her spare time, Lauren enjoys going for long walks with her dog - she always wears a Fitbit and tries to get 12,000 steps per day.