She was born as Laura Jean Reese Witherspoon in New Orleans on the 22nd of March, 1976. Her father used to work in the army, so she stayed in Germany for the first four years of her life. Then they came to live in Nashville. Laura modeled as a child model for her friend’s parents flower shop. She became the talk of the town and by 11; she won a 10 State Talent Award. By 13, she was modeling for various products.

She made her debut with Man in the Moon. She played the character of a 14-year-old girl, Dani Trant who is smitten by her 17-year-old neighbour. Her first dialogue was "I love Elvis so much”. After that she did Wildflower where she plays a 17 year old who has epileptic attacks but is believed to be possessed by her family. Reese did several other movies and by this time, she was nominated for Young Artist Award twice. Her next big venture was Jack the Bear. In this movie the character Jack falls for the young Reese.

Freeway could not bring much success to Reese. At her 21st birthday party she met actor Ryan Phillippe for the first time in her life. Phillippe’s main motive to go there was to get free beer. He and Reese conversed till late night as Ryan had to go to shoot for I Know What You Did Last Summer. Both of them were so attracted to each other that they kept contact, calling and writing. They married in June 1999, beside a river on a farm in Charleston, South Carolina. Now they have a daughter named Ava Elizabeth.

In 1998, she did Twilight where she went topless on film for the first time. The next big project was Overnight Delivery. After this she did Pleasantville. Here, Reese is the sex-obsessed sister of Tobey Maguire. Pleasantville got huge critical acclaims from media and Reese’s role was appreciated.

Election was perhaps the most interesting of her movies. It was for the first time that she appeared as the central character in such big movie. It was already predicted that Reese would get some critical acclaim for her mind blowing performance and true, she was nominated for a Golden Globe.

 Her acting in Best Laid Plans was fun to watch. Reese's next appearance, as Evelyn Williams, Christian Bale's materialistic, superficial fiancee in American Psycho. Her only obsession in that movie is to get married to a rich guy. She went on to prove her comic streak with the role of Jennifer Aniston’s little sister in Friends.

 These entire movies were paths which finally led her to Legally Blonde. Her boyfriend dump her for being dumb but the might lady goes on to proves her love as well as her mental faculties and emerges as a winner. It earned her a second Golden Globe nomination. Next, she played Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest.

 

Sweet Home Alabama saw her as a country girl romancing the most eligible bachelor, Patrick Dempsey. She also started her production company, Little Miss Type A set up with Debra Siegal which gave her immense success in the production venture. She continued to improve upon her acting and as she was aging, she got more mature and better offers came her way.