Laura San Giacomo was born on November 14, 1962 and was raised in Denville, New Jersey. She began acting in high school and continued her theater studies at the prestigious Carnegie Mellon School of Drama in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where she earned a degree in Fine Arts.

One of San Giacomo's first television appearances of merit was in 1989 on Miami Vice as Tania Lewis. However, it was Steven Soderbergh’s film: sex, lies, and videotape that marked her film debut. Her work was nominated for a Golden Globe and she received a Los Angeles Film Critics’ Association New Generation Award. San Giacomo continued her reputation as a bankable actress in the film Pretty Woman as Kit, the wisecracking friend to Vivian, played by Julia Roberts.

San Giacomo has appeared in such films as Miles From Home, Quigley down Under, Vital Signs, Under Suspicion and Nina Takes A Lover. In 1994, she appeared opposite Rob Lowe in The Stand, the Stephen King TV Miniseries.

Her comedic timing gained notice in 1995 when she appeared in the Saturday Night Live spin-off film, Stuart Saves His Family.

In 1997, she was cast as Maya Gallo in Just Shoot Me! The role of a sometimes naive, hot-tempered, sassy journalist trying to make a name for herself who ends up working at her father’s beauty magazine Blush. Originally, the show was supposed to revolve around her character. However, the following seasons focused more on the ensemble cast as a whole.

San Giacomo returned to television voice over work after the end of Just Shoot Me! as the voice for the Oxygen true-life crime series Snapped. In 2006, San Giacomo was a guest star on Veronica Mars and was reunited with her former Just Shoot Me! cast mate, Enrico Colantoni.

San Giacomo has been married to actor Matt Adler since 2000. She was married to actor Cameron Dye from 1990 to 1999 with whom she has a son, Mason, who has cerebral palsy.

San Giacomo is a cousin to Torry Castellano of the rock group The Donnas.