The Best Laura San Giacomo Movies And TV Shows, Ranked

It's hard to overstate the star-is-born moment Laura San Giacomo had when "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" premiered at the 1989 Sundance Film Festival. At the time, San Giacomo had only made a handful of appearances on TV shows like "The Equalizer," "Miami Vice," and "Spenser for Hire." But once audiences got a look at Steven Soderbergh's indie sensation about a group of Baton Rouge yuppies dealing with ... well, sex, lies, and videotape ... her career took off. 

It's easy to understand why; her performance as a sultry young bartender having an affair with her sister's husband had echos of classic Hollywood starlets like Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth, and Jayne Mansfield, but with a modern edge. Critics and audiences took notice, and San Giacomo earned best supporting actress wins from the Independent Spirits and Chicago Film Critics Awards, as well as nominations from the Golden Globes, BAFTA, and New York Film Critics.

San Giacomo's star rose throughout the '90s with movies like "Pretty Woman," "Quigley Goes Down," and "Once Again." She became a household name with a starring role in the NBC sitcom "Just Shoot Me," for which she received a Golden Globe nomination, and made other memorable television appearances in the Stephen King miniseries "The Stand," the TNT drama "Saving Grace," and, most recently, as Dr. Grace Confalone on "NCIS." Whether it's on the big or small screen, she is always a welcome presence. Let's take a look at Laura San Giacomo's best movies and TV shows, ranked.

If you love "Moonstruck" you might like "Once Again," which similarly centers on the romantic lives of a big Italian American family. In this case, it's the Bellas, a tightly-knit clan headed by dad Joe (Danny Aiello) and mom Marilyn (Gena Rowlands). Their youngest daughter, Jan (Laura San Giacomo), is engaged, causing eldest daughter Renata (Holly Hunter) to feel like an old maid. While on a trip to the Caribbean, Renata meets salesman Sam Sharpe (Richard Dreyfuss), who sweeps her off her feet and returns to Boston to meet her family. Sam's obnoxious behavior — smoking cigarettes, trying too hard to be liked — gets on everyone's nerves, but the family eventually accepts him as one of their own.

"Once Again" was the first American feature directed by Swedish filmmaker Lasse Hallström, and it set the template for the kind of glossy, sentimental dramas he would become famous for ("What's Eating Gilbert Grape," "The Cider House Rules," "Chocolat"). It's sad and sweet and full of laughs, even if some of the plot mechanics can at times feel manipulative. Critics were generally positive, which only furthered Giacomo's star ascendancy post-"Sex, Lies, and Videotape." Perhaps the most positive review came from Roger Ebert, who wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times, "It's untidy, unpredictable, and made me feel very uncomfortable at times. And it took me all the way through the process of writing this review to discover a surprising thing about this movie, which is that I loved it."

There's been no shortage of Stephen King adaptations over the years, and some of his books have even been filmed multiple times, as was the case with "The Stand." While modern audiences are probably most familiar with the 2020 version that streamed in 10 parts on CBS All Access, there was a four episode iteration that aired on ABC in 1994. 

Written for the screen by King himself, it's an epic saga centered on a deadly plague that leaks from a top secret government agency, killing most of the world's population. Those remaining have split into two sides — good and evil — with the good side led by the elderly Mother Abigail (Ruby Dee) and the evil side led by the charismatic Randall Flagg (Jamey Sheridan). Caught in the middle of their ensuing conflict is Stu Redman (Gary Sinise), a Texas everyman. Laura San Giacomo co-stars as Nadine Cross, a chaste young woman who turns to the dark side after falling under Flagg's spell.

As far as King TV adaptations from the 1990s goes, "The Stand" might not have the lasting cultural impact of "It," but it was generally well received by critics. It even earned a few Emmy nominations, winning for its makeup and sound mixing, and also got a SAG bid for Sinise. David Bianculli of The New York Daily News went so far as to call it "the most stylish and satisfying TV adaptation of Kings work," which was high praise indeed.

Laura San Giacomo was a hot commodity after "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" debuted at the 1989 Sundance Film Festival, and the following year saw her landing roles in three different films: medical student Lauren Rose in "Vital Signs," western madame Crazy Cora in "Quigley Down Under," and tough-talking prostitute Kit De Luca in "Pretty Woman." The biggest hit of these was the latter, which raked in $178 million at the domestic box office and netted an Oscar nomination for Julia Roberts. 

Directed by Garry Marshall, it's a Cinderella story about a Los Angeles call girl named Vivian Ward (Roberts), who's hired by visiting businessman Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) to be his escort for the week. Much like Professor Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle, Edward turns Vivian into a woman worthy of taking to the opera, and she in turn wins his heart. She also convinces her roommate, Kit, to give up sex work and go to beauty school.

The original script by J.F. Lawton, then titled "3,000," was notoriously dark, with Edward dumping Vivian after his time in Los Angeles comes to an end. But with a few strokes of the pen mandated by Walt Disney Studios, it became a charming romantic comedy and cable TV mainstay. Its old fashioned sincerity managed to win over even the most cynical of film critics, including Janet Maslin of The New York Times, who said San Giacomo "adds a welcome note of reality to the film during her brief appearances."

Laura San Giacomo became a mainstay in living rooms across the country with "Just Shoot Me," which aired for seven seasons on NBC. The brainchild of "Modern Family" co-creator Steven Levitan, it centers on the day-to-day operations of a high-end fashion magazine called "Blush," run by veteran publisher Jack Gallo (George Segal). San Giacomo plays Jack's daughter, Maya, a talented yet hotheaded journalist who takes a job at her dad's magazine after getting fired from her last network news gig. The ensemble cast also includes Wendie Malick as fashion editor Nina Van Horn, Enrico Colantoni as photographer Elliot DiMauro, and David Spade as Jack's sarcastic assistant, Dennis Finch.

"Just Shoot Me" followed Maya's professional and personal ups-and-downs throughout its run from 1997 to 2003, as she grew more confident as a reporter, reconnected with her workaholic father, fell in love with Elliot, and dated a variety of guest stars (including a young Joe Rogan). San Giacomo earned a Golden Globe nomination for the show, which received rave reviews when it hit the air waves. "With this intriguing mix of people and acting styles, right off the bat you know this isn't going to be just the latest addition to TV's slew of magazine-world sitcoms," wrote Ken Tucker for Entertainment Weekly. "Deftly written by Levitan, it succeeds in part by having the show's broadest characters orbit around the straightest ones, instead of vice versa," concurred Howard Rosenberg of The Los Angeles Times. Audiences agreed, and "Just Shoot Me" was a consistent ratings hit.

Few films had as meteoric a success story as "Sex, Lies, and Videotape," which helped catapult independent cinema out of the arthouses and into the multiplexes. The feature debut for writer-director Steven Soderbergh, it caused a sensation when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it earned rave reviews and won the Audience Award before snagging the Palme d'Or at Cannes and reaping an Oscar nomination for Soderbergh's original screenplay. It made movie stars out of its relatively unknown cast, and introduced the world to Laura San Giacomo, who came within striking distance of her own Oscar nom after earning best supporting actress bids at the Golden Globes, BAFTA, and Independent Spirit Awards (which she won).

Debuting at the tail end of the 1980s, "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" explores the shallowness of yuppies, embodied in the character of John Mullany (Peter Gallagher). A successful Baton Rouge attorney, John is married to the sexually repressed Ann (Andie MacDowell) and having an affair with her more adventurous sister, Cynthia (San Giacomo). John's college friend, Graham Dalton (James Spader), drifts into town looking for a place to live, and Ann is shocked to discover that he likes videotaping women discussing their secret fetishes. Graham's obsession upends the lives of everyone around him, changing Ann and Cynthia's view of sex and exposing the rot at John's core. "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" changed the careers of all involved, including San Giacomo, who Rita Kemp of The Washington Post described as "a walking spice rack – sinuous, challenging, foxy."