Kentucky child star won a car as a 5-year-old and hasn’t stopped driving to success
Editor’s Note: As Lexington celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding, the Herald-Leader and kentucky.com each day throughout 2025 will share interesting facts about our hometown. Compiled by Liz Carey, all are notable moments in the city’s history - some funny, some sad, others heartbreaking or celebratory, and some just downright strange.
April 9, 1981: Laura Bell Bundy is born.
You might recognize her as the younger version of Sarah Whittle, Bonnie Hunt’s character in “Jumanji”; as Becky, Robin’s co-anchor on “How I Met Your Mother”; or as Dr. Jordan Denby, starring opposite Charlie Sheen in “Anger Management,” but Lexingtonians might remember her as just Laura Bell Bundy.
Now Laura Bell Bundy-Hinkle, she was born on April 10, 1981, in Euclid, Ohio, before moving to Lexington as a kid.
Her mother, Lorna Bundy-Jones, entered her into pageants as a child (where she won a car at age 5!), and the love of performing was born. Winning also brought the down side of the spotlight. Her pageant days led to a spot on “The Phil Donahue Show.”
Laura said she and her mother were ambushed on the show that turned out to be an expose on pageant kids and their parents, complete with a child psychologist who helped turn the audience against pageant participants and their parents. Instead of backing down, Laura grabbed the microphone and defended her mother.
Her mother, in turn, took Laura to the Ford Modeling agency later that day and demanded she meet with the children’s division. They signed Laura to a five-year contract on the spot.
From then on, she was in New York City during the summers to model and act and back home the rest of the year.
At 9, she had her stage debut at Radio City Music Hall. In 1991, she moved to New York and attended the Professional Children’s School while performing as Tina Denmark in “Ruthless.”
Since then, she’s sung and acted on Broadway, on television and on the Grand Ole Opry stage.
From a Tony nomination for her role as Elle Woods in “Legally Blonde: The Musical,” to her more than 100 episodes on television, to films like “Jumanji,” “The Adventures of Huck Finn,” to “Beauty Mark,” she’s done it all.
Five years later, she moved back to Kentucky and graduated from Lexington Catholic High School. Around this time she started writing songs. Another move to New York found her starring as Amber in “Hairspray” while she attended NYU as a sociology major.
A career on and off Broadway followed.
In 2007, Laura released her debut country album, “Longing for a Place Already Gone.” She moved to Nashville and worked on h er second album, “Achin’ and Shakin’,” which debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard Top Country Album charts, and No. 28 on the Billboard 200. Her songs “Giddy on Up” (for which she was nominated for a CMT Breakout Video award) and “Rebound” were featured in the Rock Band video game.
She’s also started her own production company, LBBTV, that launched a successful sketch comedy web series “Cooter County and Skits-O-Frenic.” She also writes and directs music/comedy videos, founded her own charitable organization to benefit and empower women, and in 2020 launched a podcast “Women of Tomorrow” to dive into the issues of women’s rights.
Now, she also considers herself an activist focusing on women’s rights and equality with her two organizations — Double Standards that promotes the equal treatment, health and empowerment of women, and Women of Tomorrow that focuses on raising awareness to women’s issues and women’s history through art, education and community.
In 2017, Laura married TBS executive Thom Hinkle and welcomed her son to the world in May 2019.
Have a question or story idea related to Lexington’s 250-year history? Let us know at 250LexKy@gmail.com
This story was originally published April 14, 2025 at 4:13 PM.