From Jurassic Park to Palm Royale: Every Laura Dern Performance Ranked and Where to Watch Them

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Laura Dern is best known for her role as Ellie Sadler in the Steven Spielberg dinosaur epic, Jurassic Park. Yet, the American actress has had a varied career over the last almost four decades, starring in billion-dollar franchises as well as period classics. Read on to discover every Laura Dern movie and TV show and where to stream them.

Back in the early ‘80s, Dern began her acting career before making her breakout role in films such as Mask and David Lynch’s Blue Velvet. Before long, the actress was starring in revered independent and medium budget films such as Wild at Heart and Rambling Rose, which even earned the actress her first Academy Award nomination.

Yet, in 1993 Dern soared to new heights when she starred in Speilerg’s science fiction film, Jurassic Park alongside Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum. The cult classic remains regarded as one of the greatest films of all time and has an impressive legacy considering its $63 million budget, as it went onto gross over $1 billion at the box office - which was almost unheard of in the ‘90s. It became the highest grossing film of all time, and held that title until 1997 when James Cameron released the romantic drama, Titanic.

The epic adaptation of Michael Crichton’s 1990 novel of the same name, kick-started the franchise that has since spawned its own trilogy and the Jurassic World trilogy too. Dern reprised her role as Sadler in Jurassic World III, a less successful (grossing $368 million), but still nail-biting installment, and in 2022 in Jurassic World: Dominion. The long-awaited reunion and crossover between the two dino-loving teams grossed $1 billion at the box office, which was even more impressive after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The actress is also well known for her long-standing collaborations with Reese Witherspoon and her production company Hello Sunshine. After starring in the 2014 biopic Wild together, which earned Dern her second Academy Award nomination, the duo fronted the award-winning HBO series, Big Little Lies alongside Shailene Woodley.

Based on Liane Moriarty’s novel of the same name, the comedy drama is one of Dern’s finest performances of her career. She won a Primetime Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award for her performance as Renata Klein in the two-season show.

Since then, Dern has landed supporting roles in films such as Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story, and starred in Greta Gerwig’s award-winning adaptation of Little Women. Now the actress has returned to the small-screen to star in the Apple TV original series, Palm Royale alongside Kristen Wiig.

With so many impressive performances to choose from, here’s every Laura Dern movie and TV show ranked and where to stream them.

  1. Big Little Lies

    Big Little Lies

    2017

    IMDB 8.4 (224k)

    #1

    The tale of three mothers of first graders whose apparently perfect lives unravel to the point of murder.

  2. Little Women

    Little Women

    2019

    IMDB 7.8 (245k)

    #2

    Four sisters come of age in America in the aftermath of the Civil War.

  3. Marriage Story

    Marriage Story

    2019

    IMDB 7.9 (346k)

    #3

    A stage director and an actress struggle through a grueling, coast-to-coast divorce that pushes them to their personal extremes.

  4. Jurassic Park

    Jurassic Park

    1993

    IMDB 8.2 (1m)

    #4

    A wealthy entrepreneur secretly creates a theme park featuring living dinosaurs drawn from prehistoric DNA. Before opening day, he invites a team of experts and his two eager grandchildren to experience the park and help calm anxious investors. However, the park is anything but amusing as the security systems go off-line and the dinosaurs escape.

  5. Wild

    Wild

    2014

    IMDB 7.1 (138k)

    #5

    A woman with a tragic past decides to start her new life by hiking for one thousand miles on the Pacific Crest Trail.

  6. The Son

    The Son

    2022

    IMDB 6.4 (15k)

    #6

    A successful lawyer, with a new wife and infant, agrees to care for his teenage son from a previous marriage after his ex-wife becomes concerned about the boy's wayward behavior.

  7. Palm Royale

    Palm Royale

    2024

    IMDB 6.7 (4k)

    #7

    An ambitious woman schemes to secure her seat at America's most exclusive table: Palm Beach high society circa 1969.

  8. Blue Velvet

    Blue Velvet

    1986

    IMDB 7.7 (215k)

    #8

    Clean-cut Jeffrey Beaumont realizes his hometown is not so normal when he discovers a human ear in a field, the investigation soon catapulting him toward a disturbed nightclub singer and a drug-addicted sadist.

  9. Rambling Rose

    Rambling Rose

    1991

    IMDB 6.6 (5k)

    #9

    Rose is taken in by the Hillyer family to serve as a 1930s housemaid so that she can avoid falling into a life of prostitution. Her appearence and personality is such that all men fall for her, and she knows it. She can't help herself from getting into trouble with men.

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  10. The Founder

    The Founder

    2016

    IMDB 7.2 (177k)

    #10

    Written by Robert Siegel (BIG FAN), THE FOUNDER is a drama that tells the true story of how Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton), a salesman from Illinois, met Mac and Dick McDonald, who were running a burger operation in 1950s Southern California. Kroc was impressed by the brothers' speedy system of making the food and saw franchise potential. He maneuvered himself into a position to be able to pull the company from the brothers and create a billion-dollar empire.

  11. Star Wars: The Last Jedi

    #11

    Rey develops her newly discovered abilities with the guidance of Luke Skywalker, who is unsettled by the strength of her powers. Meanwhile, the Resistance prepares to do battle with the First Order.

  12. Jurassic World Dominion

    #12

    Four years after Isla Nublar was destroyed, dinosaurs now live—and hunt—alongside humans all over the world. This fragile balance will reshape the future and determine, once and for all, whether human beings are to remain the apex predators ona planet they now share with history's most fearsome creatures.

  13. October Sky

    October Sky

    1999

    IMDB 7.8 (97k)

    #13

    Based on the true story of Homer Hickam, a coal miner's son who was inspired by the first Sputnik launch to take up rocketry against his father's wishes, and eventually became a NASA scientist.

  14. Jurassic Park III

    Jurassic Park III

    2001

    IMDB 5.9 (340k)

    #14

    In need of funds for research, Dr. Alan Grant accepts a large sum of money to accompany Paul and Amanda Kirby on an aerial tour of the infamous Isla Sorna. It isn't long before all hell breaks loose and the stranded wayfarers must fight for survival as a host of new -- and even more deadly -- dinosaurs try to make snacks of them.

  15. We Don't Live Here Anymore

    #15

    Married couple Jack and Terry Linden are experiencing a difficult period in their relationship. When Jack decides to step outside the marriage, he becomes involved with Edith, who happens to be the wife of his best friend and colleague, Hank Evans. Learning of their partners' infidelity, Terry and Hank engage in their own extramarital affair together. Now, both marriages and friendships are on the brink of collapse.

  16. The Fault in Our Stars

    The Fault in Our Stars

    2014

    IMDB 7.7 (400k)

    #16

    Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a patient named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

  17. A Perfect World

    A Perfect World

    1993

    IMDB 7.5 (86k)

    #17

    A kidnapped boy strikes up a friendship with his captor: an escaped convict on the run from the law, headed by an honorable U.S. Marshal.

  18. Enlightened

    Enlightened

    2011

    IMDB 7.5 (10k)

    #18

    After a very public breakdown and a subsequent philosophical awakening in rehabilitation, Amy tries to get her life back together.

  19. Recount

    Recount

    2008

    IMDB 7.3 (13k)

    #19

    In 2000, the election of the U.S. Presidential boiled down to a few precious votes in the state of Florida — and a recount that would add "hanging chad" to every American's vocabulary.

  20. Little Fockers

    Little Fockers

    2010

    IMDB 5.5 (119k)

    #20

    It has taken 10 years, two little Fockers with wife Pam and countless hurdles for Greg to finally get in with his tightly wound father-in-law, Jack. After the cash-strapped dad takes a job moonlighting for a drug company, Jack's suspicions about his favorite male nurse come roaring back. When Greg and Pam's entire clan descends for the twins' birthday party, Greg must prove to the skeptical Jack that he's fully capable as the man of the house.