Vandervoort was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario.[1][2] She is the daughter of a Canadian mother and a Dutch father. In the first weeks of her life, she contracted meningitis, resulting in a severe sickness that lasted a few months. Her parents were initially told she was not going to survive.[9][10] Growing up, Vandervoort was involved in several sports such as football, karate (where she is a second-degree black belt),[1][2][8] basketball, tennis, gymnastics and baseball. She has an older sister, Sarah[1][5] and she is related to Canadian actor Gordon Pinsent.[11]
Career
Laura Vandervoort in 2008
In 1997, she made her acting debut at age 13.[2] After taking several classes and doing background work on Canadian shows such as Road to Avonlea and Harriet the Spy, she got her first speaking role in the Canadian children's horror anthology series Goosebumps and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, both series were aired on YTV.[2]
Following The CW and Smallville, Vandervoort then shot the sequel to the feature film Into the Blue titled Into the Blue 2: The Reef.[3] She next filmed an independent production titled The Jazzman, which also starred Canadian stars Michael Ironside (who appeared in the second V miniseries as well as the 1984 V regular series) and Corey Sevier.[3]
In 2010, Vandervoort appeared in the two-part miniseries Riverworld in which she plays Jessie Machalan, the fiancée of war correspondent Matt Ellman who wakes up after death on a planet populated by everyone who has ever lived on Earth.[13] In 2011, she starred in the suspense film The Entitled, alongside Ray Liotta and Kevin Zegers.[2][14]
In October 2011, she posed for PETA as part of the "Exotic Skins" campaign[15] and in 2014, she appeared nude again for an ad that protested against the keeping of marine mammals in captivity.[16] In 2012, she had a small role in Seth MacFarlane's comedy film Ted, playing Mark Wahlberg's coworker Tanya.[2][5]
Vandervoort resides in Toronto, Ontario.[2][5][19] In 2013, she was engaged to actor Oliver Trevena, but the engagement was called off in 2015. In 2023, she became engaged to Adam Coates, chief revenue officer of the Decibel Cannabis Company.[20][21]
