A red-headed actress with developing dramatic range and trained vocal talent that led to her opera singer aspirations, Connecticut native Lauren Ambrose got her start with stage and TV work in nearby NYC before film and television roles brought her to Los Angeles. She made her Off-Broadway debut at age fourteen with a role in "Soulful Scream of a Chosen Son", a drama produced by the Vineyard Theatre Company. Ambrose also worked with the Ensemble Studio Theater and Naked Angels troupes, and took some memorable roles on the Manhattan-filmed drama series "Law & Order". In 1992 and 1993 she had supporting guest roles on the popular NBC fixture, playing characters related to the respective victims and in 1998, she returned to the series with a featured guest role, impressing as a mentally-challenged young woman raped by a group of popular high school students.
In 1997, Ambrose made her feature debut in the Frank Oz comedy "In and Out" playing Vickie Rayburn, a gifted student of Kevin Kline's sexually ambiguous English teacher. More screen time came with her turn in the following year's "Can't Hardly Wait". She played quick-witted recluse Denise in this graduation party-set ensemble comedy, best friend of lovestruck Preston (Ethan Embry) and unlikely love match for hip-hop wannabe Kenny (Seth Green). The film was a hit with the teen set, and Denise emerged as a most relatable and realistic character, due in no small part to the actress' spot-on cynical portrayal. Already a familiar face to the series' core audience, Ambrose took on a well-received 1999 recurring role on Fox's "Party of Five" playing Myra, a troubled teen who escapes her personal problems through alcohol and irresponsible sexual activity and fabricates a story about the Salingers' pseudo-patriarch Charlie (Matthew Fox) that threatens to ruin his career. The actress' nuanced and morally ambiguous take on the character elevated Myra from typical two-dimensional misunderstood bad girl to an interesting individual.
Ambrose proved an engaging screen presence and talented performer with promising starring turns in the independent films "Swimming" (1999) and "Psycho Beach Party" (2000). In the former, a thoughtful coming-of-age drama, she starred as a shy tomboy in a seaside resort town who spends her summer fascinated with an inspiring blonde free spirit (Joelle Carter) and involved with a mysterious and enchanted drifter (Jamie Harrold). As the film's central character, Ambrose showed a unique ability for eliciting audience empathy, emerging as a dynamic Everywoman. The campy comedy "Psycho Beach Party" allowed her to showcase not only her sense of humor but her musical gifts as well, playing a teenage introvert turned popular surfer chick with multiple personality disorder in this wacky beach party murder mystery based on Charles Busch's popular Off-Broadway play. She returned to television in the HBO black comedy "Six Feet Under" (2001-2005). Written, produced and directed by "American Beauty" scripter Alan Ball, the series followed a family that runs a funeral parlor, with Ambrose starring as the family's young daughter Claire, a tart-tongued, anti-authoritarian aspiring artist who frequently questions societal conventions. In 2002, Amborse was nominated for an Emmy award for her authentic, uncompromising portrayal.