Lauren German

Lauren German was born in Huntington Beach, California,^[1] on November 29, 1978,^[2] the daughter of Holly and vascular surgeon Richard German.^[3] Her father was born in the U.S. to an English mother and Dutch father.^[1] She attended Los Alamitos High School and trained as a dancer at the Orange County High School of the Arts, then enrolled at the University of Southern California to study anthropology before moving to New York City to study at the Actors Studio.^[4]

German's first work was on stage in Peter Pan and Oliver. She made her feature film debut in the 2000 romantic comedy Down to You, where she had a small role as a lovestruck woman. German appeared in a pictorial for Maxim's January 2002 issue and was placed as #47 in Maxim's "Hot 100 of 2002" list.^[5]

In 2002, German co-starred in the romantic drama A Walk to Remember with Shane West and Mandy Moore, based on Nicholas Sparks' 1999 novel of the same name. She played Belinda, a popular but mean-spirited high school girl who harbors unrequited love for Landon Carter (West).^[6] She then appeared in the crime/horror film Dead Above Ground, the drama A Midsummer Night's Rave,^[7] and the TV movie The Lone Ranger. In 2003, she auditioned to star in the remake of the classic 1974 horror film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but the role went to Jessica Biel, and German won the role of the hitchhiker.^[8]

German co-starred in the crime drama Born Killers (2005), the thriller Rx (2005), the romantic comedy Standing Still (2005),^[9] and the drama It Is Fine! Everything Is Fine. (2007). She also starred in the musical drama What We Do Is Secret with Shane West again, based on a true story.^[6] West played original Germs singer and German played The Go-Go's singer Belinda Carlisle.^[6]

She starred in the horror film Hostel: Part II.^[6][10] and the apocalypse thriller The Divide.^[11] She starred in the second season of the CBS police drama Hawaii Five-0^[12] as DHS agent Lori Weston from 2011 to 2012.^[6] From 2012 to 2014, she starred as paramedic Leslie Shay in the NBC drama Chicago Fire.^[6] When her character was killed, her character's name was printed on the door of the ambulance in which she rode, as a memorial. She graced the cover of TV Guide magazine with her Chicago Fire co-stars on November 18, 2013.^[13]

German played the co-lead role of detective Chloe Decker in the Fox (and later Netflix) urban fantasy comedy-drama series Lucifer (2016–2021).^[14][15]