Laura Soltis was born in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in the suburb of Joliet. Even at a very young age she knew she was destined for the stage.

Her mother was a renowned ballet teacher and choreographer who co-founded the Joliet Ballet Society. Many of her students went on to perform professionally in dance and theatre. Laura’s grandparents performed with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey’s Circus, in nightclubs, TV, and film.Throughout grade school and into high school, Laura performed regularly with the Joliet Ballet Society and Indianapolis Ballet Theatre. Ballet class was a daily ritual and soon she began studying voice and piano as well.

In her senior year of high school, Laura decided to test the waters professionally and auditioned for The King and I in Chicago. Her professional career was launched as she landed the lead dance role of Eliza in that production. Culturally, Chicago was thriving and Laura danced and sang in show after show enjoying every minute of it. At 19, she joined the cast of Evita at the Shubert Theatre and then traveled nationally with the show for two years before finally settling in New York City.New York was an eye-opening experience for Laura at the age of 21, truly the city that never sleeps and fortunately so much was going on that Laura never had to wait tables to pay the rent.

Her first job in New York was being cast in a television special, “Bob Hope’s 80th Birthday Celebration” at the Kennedy Center with a star studded cast. It was an honor to be amongst such legends as George Burns, Lucile Ball and of course Bob Hope, to name a few, and to perform for President Ronald Reagan and the first lady. Laura spent the next few years doing numerous musicals and touring nationally before moving to Los Angeles.Life in LA was productive offering plenty of theatre work, but Laura really wanted to pursue the film industry. By this time, Laura was fortunate to be landing some of her favorite roles such as Lola in Damn Yankee’s, Elaine in Arsenic and Old Lace, and Dorothy in Nite Club Confidential. Laura also played Sheila in many different productions of A Chorus Line with her most memorable being her performances at the State Theatre in Seoul, Korea. Eventually, after years of dancing and singing on stage, acting became Laura’s focus and she started studying the craft more seriously.

In 1998 Laura was cast in the Los Angeles Company of Ragtime, which a year later brought her to the beautiful city of Vancouver, British Columbia. Laura instantly fell in love with the city and because of the flourishing film and television industry here she decided to pack up and move.For the past few years Laura has been residing in Vancouver and much enjoying the film industry and the arts scene. She has had recurring roles on the WB Network series Black Sash, CTV’s Godiva’s, The Guard, and presently is recurring on Level Up for the cartoon channel. She has guest starred on numerous TV shows, and appears in several feature films and movies of the week. Her most notable role to date was playing Joyce Haddison on CTV’s comedy Hiccups, starring Brent Butt and Nancy Robertson.

In her spare time Laura enjoys skiing, salsa dancing, and walking Vancouver’s magnificent seawall.