Actress. Born in 1966, in Los Angeles. Tall (5'10"), languid blonde lead of the American screen. The daughter of actors Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd, she appeared as a child extra in several of her father's films and had a walk-on in her mother's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1975). After training at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, she made her screen acting debut in 1980, and was highly praised for her roles in Smooth Talk (1985) and Rambling Rose (1991), two varieties of women confronting their sexuality.
But it was her starring role in Smooth Talk that proved Dern could carry a picture. A favorite of director David Lynch, she starred in two of his
weirded-out flicks (Wild at Heart and Blue Velvet), but made her most
illuminating impression as the title character in Rambling Rose, a small gem of a picture that won a Best Actress nomination for Dern and Best Supporting Actress Nomination for her mother, the first time a mother-daughter team had been so honored. A lead in Jurassic Park (which led to a real-life love affair with Jeff Goldblum) did nothing to highlight her gifts but certainly increased her asking price.
