Date of Birth

31 December 1992, Los Angeles, California, USA

Birth Name

Vanessa Nicole Marano

Height

5' 3½" (1.61 m)

Mini Biography

Vanessa Marano started acting in the theater when she was seven years old, performing in numerous plays at A.C.T. in Agoura Hills, California. She began her professional career with several national commercials.

Marano is most recognized for her roles as "April Nardini", the daughter of "Luke", in the highly popular show, Gilmore Girls (2000) and for the role of "Francesca", the daughter of the Emmy Award-winning Lisa Kudrow, in the HBO original series, The Comeback (2005). Recently, she starred in Scoundrels (2010), playing the scheming, school-skipping daughter of Virginia Madsen. She has had recurring roles in shows including Dexter (2006), Without a Trace (2002), Trust Me (2009) and The Young and the Restless (1973). Her guest-starring credits include Parenthood (2010), Medium (2005), Ghost Whisperer (2005), Past Life (2010), Six Feet Under (2001), Malcolm in the Middle (2000) and Grounded for Life (2001).

She starred as a young girl who becomes a quadriplegic in the critically acclaimed television movie, The Brooke Ellison Story (2004), directed by Christopher Reeve.

Marano's first film was the animated hit, Finding Nemo (2003), followed by the independent films, Easy (2003), The Clique (2008), Stopping Power (2000), Dear Lemon Lima (2009) and, most recently, The Secret Lives of Dorks (2013).

Vanessa is working with Lucy Liu on a miniseries, playing the troubled foster teenager, "Imogene 'Immy' Hicks" in Marry Me (2010).

Vanessa speaks Italian and is enrolled in her sophomore year in college.

Trivia

• She is also one of the youngest members of the prestigious Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
• Vanessa is the older sister of Laura Marano who is also an actress.
• Both Vanessa and her sister, Laura Marano, have guest-starred on the series, Dexter (2006). Laura played the younger version of "Debra Morgan" in Season one while Vanessa played Arthur Mitchell's daughter in Season four.
• She and her real-life sister, Laura Marano, played on-screen sisters in recurring roles on Without a Trace (2002).
• Best friends with Meaghan Martin.
• Her father is of Italian origin. Her mother has English and Irish ancestry.
• Vanessa and Laura Marano and their mother optioned a book, "Saving Zoë (2019)" ten years ago, and they produced and starred in it as sisters during the summer of 2017. Studio 71 was their producing partner.
• Known for playing the role of Bay Kennish on the show Switched at Birth and also appeared on other series like Gilmore Girls and Ghost Whisperer. She appeared in the film The Clique as Abeley.
• Her first acting role was in the animated film Finding Nemo, where she lent her vocal talents.
• Her sister Laura is also an actress. Her mom's name is Ellen.
• She began acting when she was two years old and took theater roles as a child.
• She played a younger version of the character played by Jennifer Carpenter on Dexter.

Quotes

• Everyone loves each other for the pilot. But once you start to do the show, you see everybody's true colors. If it's successful, people start to change, and then if it's not doing well, people start to change in other ways.
• Who doesn't love a 'Lifetime' movie? I think that they know their audience so well.
• I'm very into dark colors. I try to rock the dark against the ghost white skin as much as humanly possible.
• When I was eleven, I got cast in the last directorial project of Christopher Reeve.
• I've been on plenty of sets where I have not liked the people that I work with, but you suck it up and be professional.
• I'm very obsessed with 'The Real Housewives' franchise. It's a bad obsession.
• Lizzy Weiss is such a great writer, and she really writes for the performances.