Born and raised in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, she began acting in CBC Radio dramas and animated series when she was five years old. As a child she was educated at the private Crofton House School in Vancouver; after moving to Los Angeles she took college correspondence courses in psychology. After several years of work in television, she broke into feature films as a teenager.

She may be best known for playing Marybeth Louise Hutchinson in The Faculty, Daisy Adair in the Showtime series Dead Like Me, and Marie Warner in Season 2 of 24. While never officially quit acting, she switched her focus in 2010 to education and began attending college at UC Berkeley. While there, she began to show an interest in activism. In 2013, she began working for a tech company that also worked to improve local communities, politically and otherwise. In 2021, after a 6 year hiatus from acting, Laura took on the role of Willow Ward on the Netflix show Scaredy Cats, appearing in 3 episodes. Also in 2021 Laura had a part in the Lifetime Channel movie Gone Mom.