Laura Prepon

Laura Prepon
Prepon at PaleyFest 2014, representing Orange Is the New Black
Born	Laura Helene Prepon (1980-03-07) March 7, 1980 (age 36) Watchung, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, producer, author
Years active	1995–present

Laura Helene Prepon (born March 7, 1980) is an American actress, producer, and author. She is known for her role as Donna Pinciotti in all eight seasons of the Fox sitcom That '70s Show (1998–2006), and for her role as Alex Vause in the Netflix original comedy-drama series Orange Is the New Black (2013–present). Following That '70s Show, Prepon worked mainly in television. She appeared in the film adaptation of Paula Hawkins's novel The Girl on the Train.

Prepon was born on March 7, 1980, in Watchung, New Jersey, the youngest of five children, to Marjorie (née Coll), a high school teacher, and Michael Prepon, an orthopedic surgeon. She is of Russian Jewish and Irish Catholic descent. Her maternal great-great-great-grandfather was Union Army General Joseph Bradford Carr. Prepon's father died during heart surgery in 1993 at age 49; she was 13 years old at the time. She attended Watchung Hills Regional High School. She studied at the Total Theatre Lab in New York City.

Prepon appeared in plays such as A Woman of Property and Ascension Day while in New York. In 1996, she studied drama with acting teacher Caroline Thomas at Thomas' Total Theatre Lab. Later, in September 1997, she premiered on a Levi Strauss-developed show called They Go On, an Internet-based soap opera. Prepon had also worked as a model and has done photo shoots in Paris, Milan, and Brazil.